SFU Canada Research Chairs Seminar Series "Balancing acts, safe landing responses, and impact dynamics: how to avoid injury in the event of a fall"
11:30 - 12:30
Rm10900
Dr. Stephen Robinovitch, Canada Research Chair in Biomedical Engineering
School of Kinesiology and School of Engineering Science
Abstract
Preventing falls and their related injuries in the elderly is challenging, due to the myriad of associated risk factors. My talk will briefly discuss three aspects of our fall injury prevention research: (1) Balance maintenance and recovery. Risk for falls depends on one's ability to maintain balance while performing daily activities, and on one's ability to recover a stable upright stance in the event of imbalance. Our studies have yielded the following observations. First, declines among elderly in ability to recover balance are explained largely by slowing of reaction time. Second, elderly adults are just as accurate as young in perception of their postural limits, but are less likely to approach these limits during daily activities. Finally, among frail elderly, a range of balance measures do not easily distinguish fallers from non-fallers. (2) Safe landing responses. The intactness of "safe landing" responses is crucial to avoiding injury during a fall, since any fall from standing contains sufficient energy to fracture the proximal femur or distal radius. Through novel experiments in our "falling laboratory," we have found that stereotypical but context dependant protective responses govern falls. Stepping and impact to the hands are common, and both are protective to the hip. It is also possible to modify the direction of a fall (e.g., from sideways to forward or backward) while it is occurring, if initiated early during descent. However, in an unexpected fall, primitive responses tend to override training, as acquired through martial arts. (3) Padding the individual or environment. A practical method for preventing fall-related injuries is wearable protective gear (e.g, hip protectors, which can reduce fracture risk 4-fold) or compliant flooring in high-environments. Improvements in research and design should lead to increased compliance with these interventions. We have developed a biofidelic hip impact simulator (consisting of surrogate pelvis and impact pendulum), and used this to design a novel energy-shunting hip protector which reduces femoral impact force by 25%, and compliant flooring which attenuates impact force up to 54%.
About the Speaker
Dr. Stephen N. Robinovitch completed his undergraduate degree in Mechanical Engineering at the University of British Columbia and his Ph.D. degree in Medical Engineering, Harvard University - Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Division of Health Sciences and Technology. In the period 1994 - 2000, Dr. Robinovitch was an Assistant Professor in-Residence in the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, University of California, San Francisco, Director in the Biomechanics Laboratory, Division of Orthopaedic Surgery, San Francisco General Hospital, and a Member in the Bioengineering Graduate Group, University of California, San Francisco and University of California, Berkeley. Dr. Robinovitch joined Simon Fraser University in 2000 as an Assistant Professor in the School of Kinesiology, an Associate Member in the School of Engineering Science and a Member in the Institute for Health Research and Education. Among other scientific activities, Dr. Robinovitch has published multiple scientific papers, patents, and book chapters and has supervised and co-supervised numerous young researchers at various stages in their careers; post-doctoral fellows, graduate and undergraduate students. In his scientific career Dr. Robinovitch has been the recipient of multiple grants, and in 2006 was awarded a Tier 2 Canada Research Chair in Injury Prevention and Mobility Biomechanics. Dr. Robinovitch describes his research goals in the following way: "Our research seeks to develop improved techniques for preventing disability and injury, especially in elderly individuals. Laboratory projects are aimed at either enhancing our understanding of risk factors for injury and mobility impairment, or developing and testing novel interventions. Most projects combine experimental measures of human movement dynamics with computer-based modeling efforts."
