PRESS RELEASE
ANNUAL MEETING ON PROSTHETIC REHABILITATION AT SINAI MAY HELP U.S. AMPUTEES INJURED IN IRAQ
STOUGHTON, MA — A
team of US and Russian physicians and scientists will meet to present
their latest research and findings at New England Sinai Hospital in Stoughton
for the 4th Annual Meeting of the International Institute for
Prosthetic Rehabilitation of Landmine Survivors (IPRLS) on Monday,
June 18, 2007 from 9 am to 3 pm. “We are pleased to be
hosting this important scientific meeting, which has the potential to
help amputees around the world,” said New England Sinai President
and CEO Lester P. Schindel.
The mission of the IPRLS, established in 1998 between Tufts University School
of Medicine and St. Petersburg Albrecht Center for Occupational Expertise, Prosthetics
and Rehabilitation, is to contribute to the international efforts of amputee
rehabilitation, through amputee studies and prosthetics research, and assist
amputees who would otherwise be unable to receive adequate prosthesis due to
stump complications.
Tens of thousands of Russian soldiers fighting in the Afghanistan war (1979-1989)
returned home as amputees to face months of intensive rehabilitation. Finding
ways to provide them with specialized care ushered in a new era in Soviet amputee
research and innovation in the fitting of prosthetic devices. US troops injured
in Iraq have required limb amputations at twice the rate of past wars, mainly
due to roadside bombs and improvised explosive devices or IEDs. Now, the ongoing
work of the IPRLS may benefit amputee soldiers returning from Iraq as well as
civilians — men, women, and children — maimed worldwide by landmines
every year.
IPRLS Founder and Director Mark Pitkin,
Ph.D., is also Director of Sinai’s Center for Human Performance and
Research Associate Professor of Rehabilitation Medicine, Tufts University School
of Medicine. According to Pitkin, “the IPRLS is a US-Russian partnership
program in prosthetics and rehabilitation that combines American technology with
Russian expertise in treating land mine injuries, gained first-hand from conflicts
in Afghanistan and Chechnya. Our goal is to reduce amputations and save more
lives.” To that end, Pitkin has developed a rolling joint technology applied
to design of prosthetic joints that reduces pressure and force on residuum to
make amputees more comfortable.
In addition to funding from New England Sinai and the National Institute of Health,
the IPRLS is supported by the Michael and Helen Schaffer Foundation, based in
Cambridge, MA. A long-term goal of the IPRLS is to make Russian methods and devices
readily available in the United States for use by local physicians.
A special IPRLS program called, the "US-Russian Prosthetic Rehabilitation
Bridge." provides highly qualified personnel in Russia with US manufactured
advanced prosthetic components
and technologies to improve the outcomes of medical and prosthetic rehabilitations
of landmine survivors. The program accomplishes this at a significantly lower
cost than if the same care was provided in the US.
Worldwide, there have been more than 1,000,000 casualties from landmines since
1980, almost all in the Third World. Of that number, it has been estimated that
approximately 800,000 were killed and 400,000 lost limbs. Every year, there are
26,000 new landmine casualties worldwide.
New England Sinai Hospital is a 212-bed, non-sectarian, not-for-profit,
long-term acute-care hospital with its main campus in Stoughton, MA and
inpatient satellite units at Tufts-New England Medical Center in Boston
and Caritas Carney Hospital in Dorchester.Recognized as a regional
leader in pulmonary, medically complex and acute rehabilitation care,
Sinai also offers a wide range of outpatient programs and services. Sinai
is a teaching affiliate of Tufts University School of Medicine.
Contact:
Carole Herrup
Public Relations Director
New England Sinai Hospital
150 York Street
Stoughton, MA 02072
Tel. 781-297-1329
FAX: 781-297-7509