PROVIDENCE – Linda Resnik, a research career scientist with the Providence VA Medical Center, was awarded the Paul B. Magnuson Award, the VA Rehabilitation Research and Development’s highest honor, for her work with veterans who have lost their upper limbs, the Providence VAMC reported.
Established in 1998, the Paul B. Magnuson Award is presented annually to a VA Rehabilitation Research and Development investigator who exemplifies the same entrepreneurship, humanitarianism and dedication to veterans as Magnuson, a surgeon who was considered the architect of today’s VA health care system.
Resnik directed a VA-funded study, which led to the approval of the Life Under Kinetic Evolution Arm for veterans with upper-limb amputation. Developed by DEKA Integrated Solutions Corp. and supported by federal grants, this revolutionary device is the first computer-driven prosthetic arm capable of multiple, simultaneous movements.
“We need data to better understand the needs of people with upper-limb amputations and to assess their limitations in functioning … and the amputation rehabilitation care that they have received,” Resnik said in the VA Research Currents publication in 2016.
Resnik has received other awards as well, including a VA Rehabilitation Research and Development Research Career Scientist Award in 2014. This year, she received a VA New England Health Care System Network Director’s Integrity, Commitment, Advocacy, Respect and Excellence, or I CARE, award. Resnik is also professor of health services, policy and practice at The Warren Alpert School of Medicine of Brown University.
She directs a focus area concentrated on restoring limb function for the VA Rehabilitation Research and Development’s Center for Neurorestoration and Neurotechnology, a collaboration between Providence VAMC, Brown University and affiliated hospitals, advancing neurotechnology to restore lost limb function. Resnik also directs the Multi-Institution Center on Health Services Training and Research, funded by the Foundation for Physical Therapy, trains skilled physical therapists and health policy researchers, and mentors investigators in research methods.
Nancy Kirsch is a PBN contributing writer.
