At the Glenrose Rehabilitation Hospital, research and innovation are embedded into every stage of care. From early ideas to real-world adoption, students play a vital role — contributing technical expertise, creativity, and a fresh perspective that helps transform ideas into solutions for patients and clinicians.
Each year, the Glenrose’s research and innovation (R&I) team welcomes students from across Canada through co-op placements. With backgrounds spanning mechanical, electrical, and oftentimes, biomedical engineering, these students gain hands-on experience advancing technologies that directly impact rehabilitation care.
“It’s a great learning experience for these engineering students to get perspectives that they normally wouldn’t get in the classroom,” says Tod Vandenberg, project engineer at the Glenrose. “They get to see challenges from a clinical and patient-centered point-of-view.”
The R&I centre most recently hosted six students whose work focused on both internal hospital projects and collaborations with local health-tech companies. Internal projects often begin with a problem identified by a clinician — something they wish existed to make rehabilitation easier and more effective. Industry collaborations, on the other hand, bring early-stage medical technologies into the hospital environment for refinement, testing, and validation.
Regardless of where the project begins, the focus always comes back to one thing: improving patient care.
“We always try to bring it back to the hospital,” says Kayla St Pierre, research and innovation coordinator. “Even when we’re working with industry partners, we’re always asking how this can benefit clinicians and patients at the Glenrose.”
Industry Collaborations
This year, students Chelsea, Brian, and Sophia, dedicated their placements to collaborations with local health-tech companies ArmLock and KarmaMedical, helping refine their technologies.
A New Way to Treat Tennis Elbow
Tennis elbow, an injury that causes pain and stiffness in the forearm, can make simple daily tasks like lifting objects or turning a doorknob difficult. That’s why Edmonton physiotherapist Mark Laurensse developed the ArmLock Brace — a device that holds the arm in a therapeutic position providing a gentle, controlled stretch to relieve muscle pain associated with the injury. By helping the user hold their stretch, Laurensse’s device makes it easier and more accessible for patients to engage in therapy at home.
But as any innovator knows, bringing a great idea to life requires iteration. That’s where Sophia, a fifth-year biomedical engineering undergrad at the University of Alberta, came in.
Working with Laurensse, Sophia redesigned the ArmLock brace to be more user-friendly and efficient to manufacture.
“I changed it from a glove style to a mitten design, which makes it easier to produce and more comfortable for patients,” she explains. “It’s also now more size-inclusive and adaptable; you can even wear a sweater underneath.”
The new design has fewer components, faster assembly time, and greater accessibility. And perhaps most importantly, it’s more affordable for patients seeking to continue therapy at home.
“It’s really cool to see people who have struggled in their everyday lives get better, faster,” says Sophia. “Seeing how something you design can help people return to work or daily life, it’s really meaningful.”
Advancing Upper Extremity Rehabilitation
At Karma Medical, an Edmonton-based design and manufacturing company, the goal is to make rehabilitation tools that are simple, effective, and accessible. Their flagship product, the FEPSim, supports upper-extremity rehabilitation by simulating everyday activities like turning a doorknob or opening a jar, to strengthen both fine and gross motor control.
As part of their placement, Chelsea, a first-year biomedical engineering student from the University of Waterloo, and Brian, a third-year student in the University of Alberta’s biomedical engineering program, were tasked with improving Karma’s production efficiency.
The results were impressive.
Through hands-on testing, the students reduced the device’s assembly time by 25 percent, simplifying the instructions and ensuring they could be understood by any user regardless of technical background.
“Now someone without a technical background can build it from start to finish in under 45 minutes,” says Brian.
Chelsea adds, “We wanted to make the manual feel more like a visual, step-by-step guide — simple, intuitive, and easy to follow. It’s rewarding to know that something we helped create will make the device more accessible to clinicians and patients.”
Connecting Engineering and Healthcare
For all three students, their experience at the Glenrose was eye-opening.
“In class, you learn about design on paper, but here, you actually see how your designs affect people,” says Brian. “You’re not just designing a model or simulation, you’re designing for a person. That completely changes how you think.”
Chelsea agrees. “Working here has changed my perspective on engineering. It’s not just about numbers or calculations, it’s about people. Ultimately, what we design is for people.”
For the students who pass through the program, it’s an experience that often shapes the rest of their careers.
“I feel really lucky to have been here,” says Brian. “It’s the intersection between rehabilitation, engineering, and healthcare, and it’s shown me how rewarding biomedical engineering can be.”
Chelsea echoes that sentiment: “Everyone here makes you feel like you belong. The environment supports growth and mentorship, and that makes all the difference. You learn from each other, from your supervisors, and from the patients whose lives you’re impacting.”
Sophia agrees. “It’s made me think a lot about my future. I want to keep using technology to directly help people.”
