Finding New Frontiers: Celebrating the Marcus Center for Advanced Rehabilitation

The Marcus Center for Advanced Rehabilitation (MCAR) is a snapshot of Shepherd Center in 2025. It’s a culmination of 50 years of progress, community engagement, and patient-centered care. But the 11th floor offers even more — a glimpse into Shepherd Center’s future. The space, home to the James M. Cox Innovation Institute, is the new base for Shepherd’s state-of-the-art technology, brilliant research teams, creative engineers, and expert seating, driving and access technology specialists. The top floor is already making a big difference in the lives of patients and staff members alike, and it’s outfitted for continual growth and breakthroughs in the years to come. Deborah Backus, PT, Ph.D., FACRM, Shepherd’s vice president of research and innovation, played a key part in planning the Innovation Institute. Here, she shares a glimpse into the space. 

Tech Hub

When you exit the elevators on Floor 11, you’re greeted by double doors bearing Shepherd’s logo. Pass through these doors, and you’ll find jaw-dropping views of the Atlanta skyline, as well as equally impressive displays of assistive technology. Home to the new Travis Roy Ability Bar and adjacent to the Center for Assistive Technologies, the MCAR Tech Hub is the future of patient access to technology, for everything from adaptive gaming to smart home controls. Backus says she hopes the Tech Hub will help people even outside of Shepherd’s walls. “Our mission is to break down barriers — the best care and quality of life. We want to have open houses and workshops so people with disabilities can learn new skills like 3D printing to develop their own solutions. We aim to have people from around the world come see and trial these technologies and solutions and decide what’s best for them to use at home.” 

Human Performance Lab

Down the hall from the Tech Hub, the Human Performance Lab combines state-of-the-art technology with clinician expertise to fully evaluate a patient’s motor and cognitive capabilities, as well as their behavioral attributes, to better understand what they need and to fully customize care. Equipped with a ZeroG 3D to provide body-weight support for balance and walking, an instrumented treadmill outfitted with a virtual reality projector screen, and two types of motion-tracking cameras, clinicians can evaluate and track their patients’ movement and develop personalized plans based on their needs. Plus, researchers and innovators will use this motion-capture technology to inform research, technology development, and future patient care at Shepherd. “We are collecting this data to do predictive analytics, and combine this new data with our huge existing database, to be able to understand a person’s characteristics, who they are, what their capabilities are, where they’re from, and better identify what they need while they’re at Shepherd or wherever they are in their recovery journey,” Backus says. 

She also hopes the data will be helpful when working with insurance companies, providing evidence for the care patients need, and technology developers to create the next generation of solutions for Shepherd patients. Care teams across the hospital will have more data to inform decisions about treatment, discharge, and continued rehabilitation. 

Best Health Suite

A couple of doors down from the performance lab, the Best Health Suite serves both patients at Shepherd and those back home in their communities who may not have access to a facility like Shepherd. The space is both a workout studio and recording studio, allowing exercise physiologists to lead group exercise classes and record them for use as future on-demand programming through burnalong®. The programming is free for Shepherd patients, so no matter where they travel, they have access to guided sessions from Shepherd clinicians. Dr. Backus says the new studio space also gives Shepherd’s tele-wellness programs room to grow. “People with disabilities from a spinal cord injury, brain injury, or multiple sclerosis face barriers to accessing experts for exercise and wellness,” Dr. Backus says. “Our Best Health Suite and burnalong® partnership break down these barriers for Shepherd patients and any person with these issues anywhere in the world.”

Research Teams

In addition to supporting new initiatives, the Cox Innovation Institute has brought all of Shepherd’s research programs onto one floor, giving researchers the opportunity to easily collaborate with other labs and departments. Dr. Backus says a collaboration room for researchers was a priority when planning the 11th floor. It’s already getting heavy use. “It gets used every single day. It’s different than a conference room — it has a lot of whiteboards and comfy seating — and people meet in there and have such energetic conversations. My office is down the hall, and I have to close my door and put on music, because it can get loud,” she says with a smile. “It’s been great.” 

Written by Erin Kenney