The main goal of rehabilitation research and development is to produce innovations that will maximize the quality of life for the disabled community. This project addresses the complex process of transferring technological developments from the research phase through the production and distribution phase to a state of acceptance by users. Its primary objective is to identify strategies by which the transfer process can be facilitated, both in terms of cooperation between developers, clinicians, manufacturers, and clients and in terms of higher rates of manufacturer acceptance and user adoption.

Over a term of three years, staff at the American Institutes for Research (AIR) are working collaboratively with researchers from the Veterans Administration Rehabilitation Research Development Center (RR & D Center) in Palo Alto.

The project is being conducted in three phases. During Phase I, staff gathered information about the factors that affect transfer of rehabilitation technology through (a) interviews with selected manufacturers, prescribers, and non-VA rehabilitation engineering centers, (b) a comprehensive literature search on technology transfer, and (c) study of current practices in the VA as a whole. This information enabled us to construct a framework for technology transfer as it could be carried out at the RR & D Center in Palo Alto.

In Phase II, staff conducted a survey of investigators for all of the current projects at the RR & D Center. The survey established the relative status of the projects along a continuum of basic research to applied engineering products. Ten projects were then selected (representing the range of project types) and in-depth interviews were conducted with the investigators to determine what near-term technology transfer decisions they would be making. Work then proceeded toward the development o f a Technology Transfer Guidebook to address the needs of the investigators at the RR & D Center for information about transfer.

The third phase of the project involves the tryout of the Guidebook with a selected number of investigators at the Center as they reach milestones where transfer-related decisions must be made or actions taken. The Final Report will describe the work accomplished and the recommendations for further enhancing technology transfer within the VA laboratories and coordinating these activities with non-VA laboratories, manufacturers, and other concerned parties.

Sponsor: VA Medical Center
3801 Miranda Ave.
Palo Alto, CA  94304

R. Weisgerber
January 1989
Palo Alto