He may be a quadriplegic but Dr Dinesh Palipana is drawing motivation from a unique source

HOPE is a key motivator for junior doctor and quadriplegic Dinesh Palipana. And now he’s part of groundbreaking research into ‘thought control’ which is bringing hope to him and others with devastating spinal cord injuries.

Dinesh Palipana made headlines for overcoming his disability to receive an internship as a doctor at Gold Coast Hospital.

HOPE is a key motivator for junior doctor and quadriplegic Dinesh Palipana.

And now he’s part of groundbreaking research into ‘thought control’ which is bringing hope to him and others with devastating spinal cord injuries.

Dr Palipana, 33, was injured in a car crash eight years ago half way through his medicine degree. His sheer determination and hope for a better future ensured he completed his studies at Griffith University.

His devoted mother, Anne, also played a huge part in his academic success and in helping him maintain his emotional strength during the tough days.

Dinesh Palipana is a quadriplegic who will start work as a doctor at Gold Coast University Hospital on Monday. Dinesh with his mother Anne Palipana. Picture: Jerad Williams.

Today, Dr Palipana works in the emergency department at Gold Coast University Hospital, which he said was going really well.

“I love it. It’s hectic but we have such a good team. We work hard and there is pressure but I enjoy that,” he said. “My colleagues and bosses are really supportive, which makes a world of difference.”

Naturally, the young doctor’s thoughts still often turn to walking again and this has obviously motivated him to get involved in the new research.

“Hope is really important in people’s lives. It’s important to have hope and I am hopeful this research will bring more of it to people with spinal injuries,” he said.

Dr Palipana is a test subject and researcher in a study into thought control. This involves him thinking about pushing the pedals of a specially-adapted recline bike, and thanks to electronic muscle stimulation, he’s actually moving.

Dr Dinesh Palipana and Professor David Lloyd, right. Photographer: Michael Cranfield.

This is the first step towards a world-first integrated neuro-musculoskeletal rehabilitation program, being developed at the Gold Coast Health and Knowledge Precinct (GCHKP).

“Over the past few months, we have really started pulling together some interesting stuff at Griffith,” Dr Palipana said.

“I’ve spoken to people who have had spinal injuries for 30 or 40 years and they say they have seen things come and go.

“However, over the past five to eight years, there has been a lot of tangible results and progress in this field. We have seen people gain some voluntary movement such as lifting a leg or moving a toe, which is a huge step after being paralysed for years.

“With the work we are doing and the research being carried out at Griffith into stem cells, I am confident we will see some good progress in the near future.”

Griffith biomechanical scientists and engineers Professor David Lloyd, Dr Claudio Pizzolato and Dr Palipana are aiming to use their groundbreaking, 3D computer-simulated biomechanical model — connected to an electroencephalogram (EEG) to capture Dinesh’s brainwaves — to stimulate movement and eventually recovery.

“The idea is that a spinal injury or neurological patient can think about riding the bike. This generates neural patterns, and the biomechanical model sits in the middle to generate control of the patient’s personalised muscle activation patterns,” Prof Lloyd, of Griffith’s Menzies Health Institute Queensland, said.

“These are then personalised to the patient, so that they can then electrically stimulate the muscles to make the patient and bike move. It’s all in real-time, with the model adjusting the amount of stimulation required as the patient starts to recover.

“We’re in the early stages of research and we’re having to improvise with our equipment. However we know we have shown our real-time, personalised model works, basically like a digital twin of the patient,” he said.

Dr Dinesh Palipana and Professor David Lloyd, left. Photographer: Michael Cranfield.

Dr Palipana said he was excited to be part of such novel research in his own backyard.

“We’ve had equipment for many years where people passively exercise using stationary bikes, and stationary methods where people get on them and the equipment moves their legs for them,” he said.

“The problem is you really need some stimulation from the brain.

“As the years go by, we’re starting to realise that the whole nervous system is very plastic and it has to be trained, so actually thinking about moving the bike or doing an activity stimulates the spinal cord from the top down and that creates change.”

This top down, bottom up approach is novel, with the model effectively providing a substitute connection between the limbs and the brain where it was previously broken when the spinal cord was injured.

The neuro-rehabilitation research will dovetail with exciting research by Griffith biomedical scientist, Associate Professor James St John, who has had promising results for his biological treatment using olfactory (nasal) cells, to create nerve bridges to regenerate damaged spinal cords.

He hopes to move into human clinical trials in the GCHKP within the next two to three years, while Prof Lloyd and his team hope to refine their rehab testing with Dr Palipana, and develop the technology with leading global companies in exoskeleton design.

“I’m just really lucky to be well-positioned here where it’s all happening and I want to be involved as much as possible as a doctor and a potential scientist,” Dr Palipana said. “It’s my university, my hospital, my city — it’s just really nice to be a part of that.”