What are the most promising new treatments for spinal cord injuries? - Donald Peck Leslie, MD

I see as we look ahead, I would like to think that stem cell work is going to make a breakthrough and make a difference. The patients that we’ve seen and that we’ve implanted, some of them have done quite well. I feel that the research that is being done with electrical stimulation, with exoskeletal devices that we’re using – we have a research project with Vanderbilt, exoskeletal legs for ambulation. These programs are never going to stop, they’re just going to get bigger and better. And, people are living longer, people are living better, accessibility is better. I would like to think that we can decrease car problems, car wrecks, our number-one cause of injury here is motor vehicular injuries. Safer cars, self-driving cars, if you will, we’ll see. But I think the future is so bright for persons with disability because of awareness, everybody is aware. It’s not like India where I have done some work where a person with a spinal injury is put in the backroom, they’re not allowed to be in view. I brought three people from India here, and shown them what we can do and then we take it back to India. So, it’s an amazing future, I intend to be a part of it.