The Israeli National Node, represented by ALYN Hospital, a leading paediatric rehabilitation hospital, provides a clinically integrated and innovation-driven infrastructure for paediatric and adolescent rehabilitation research, combining advanced clinical services, translational research, and assistive technology development through the Helmsley Pediatric & Adolescent Rehabilitation Research Center (PARC) and the ALYNnovation innovation hub, and functions as an integrated clinical and innovation platform that enables evidence-based paediatric rehabilitation, assistive technology development, and translational research, bridging clinical needs with technological solutions to improve functional independence and quality of life for children and adolescents with disabilities.
ALYN Hospital supports the full continuum of paediatric rehabilitation research, including clinical data collection, motion analysis, neurorehabilitation studies, and assistive technology development. It enables multidisciplinary research across paediatric neurology, orthopaedics, neuropsychology, and rehabilitation engineering, leveraging state-of-the-art facilities such as motion capture systems (e.g., GRAIL), EEG monitoring, virtual and augmented reality platforms, and adaptive gaming environments. ALYN Hospital ensures compliance with Good Clinical Practice (GCP), GDPR principles, and Israeli Ministry of Health regulations, with ethics oversight provided by the institutional Helsinki Committee. In parallel, EPTRI-IL provides structured services for clinical research design, outcome measurement, usability testing, and technology validation in real-world paediatric populations. It supports startups, SMEs, clinicians, and academic partners through participatory co-design methodologies, enabling iterative development and validation of assistive and digital health technologies. Services include study protocol development, clinical feasibility testing, data management via secure platforms (e.g., REDCap), and advanced statistical and motion analysis pipelines. ALYN Hospital also offers innovation and translational support through ALYNnovation, enabling early-stage proof-of-concept development, minimum viable product testing, and clinical validation of rehabilitation technologies. This includes user-centered design processes involving children with complex disabilities, families, and multidisciplinary clinical teams, ensuring relevance, safety, and usability of emerging solutions. Data infrastructure services include secure storage, structured clinical and research datasets, interoperability support, and federated data workflows for multi-site collaboration. ALYN Hospital is actively engaged in FAIR data practices, standardised outcome measurement, and integration of digital health tools to support reproducible and scalable paediatric rehabilitation research.