| Description | We are pleased to welcome Alicia Koontz, Senior Associate Director for Research at the Human Engineering Research Laboratories in the VA Pittsburgh HealthCare System and Professor at the University of Pittsburgh, for an ME seminar on Tuesday, May 9, 2023 at 4 pm PT. Seminar title: Biomechanical Risk Factors of Pain and Secondary Injury among Manual Wheelchair Users and Opportunities for Intervention About the seminar: Over three million people living with a disability in the U.S. use manual wheelchairs as a primary form of mobility. However, extended use of a manual wheelchair overtime often leads to arm pain and, subsequently, to secondary injury. The high prevalence of upper limb pain and pathology has been associated with the routine performance of high loading repetitive activities of daily living such as wheelchair propulsion, transfers, pressure relief maneuvers and overhead activities. In addition, many wheelchair users develop neck and back pain overtime which has been associated with mechanical shock and vibration experienced during wheelchair use. The onset of pain or secondary injury substantially alters the quality of life of wheelchair users resulting in loss of independence and the ability to participate in work, leisure and other activities. This presentation will provide an overview of over two decades of research that has been conducted at the Human Engineering Research Laboratories in Pittsburgh to understand biomechanical risk factors associated with the development of pain and secondary injury and how this information has been used to inform wheelchair design, fitting, and best practices and techniques for reducing loading on the upper limbs during propulsion and transfers. Dr. Koontz will also describe her recent work and future opportunities that exist for using markerless motion capture and wearable sensors to enable for real-world assessment of these risk factors and intervention.
About the speaker: Alicia Koontz, PhD, RET is a Professor at the University of Pittsburgh, Senior Associate Director of Research and Research Biomedical Engineer at the VA Pittsburgh HealthCare System. She is an Elected Fellow to the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE). She has a BS and MS degree in Biomedical Engineering from Wright State University and received her PhD in Rehabilitation Science from the University of Pittsburgh in 2001. Dr. Koontz has been with the University of Pittsburgh and the VA for over 20 years and has maintained a continuous stream of PI led research grant funding from multiple federal agencies, corporate sponsors and foundations. Dr. Koontz is also a RESNA certified Assistive Technology Professional (ATP) and Rehabilitation Engineering Technologist (RET) and has experience in providing direct patient care services of various types of assistive technologies. Dr. Koontz has trained over 40 post-docs, doctoral and masters students and over 60 undergraduate student researchers. She has published over 100 peer-reviewed materials in top-tier rehabilitation, engineering and biomechanics journals—including Sensors, Biomed Research International, Clinical Biomechanics and the Assistive Technology Journal. |
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