Research tracks severity—and rise—of spinal cord injuries from older adult falls

Numaira Obaid, a postdoctoral fellow in SFU’s Surrey-based Neurospine Biomechanics Lab, is investigating how age-related degeneration impacts geriatric spinal injuries.

Her research involves simulating injuries through computational models and reviewing data such as MRIs of previously incurred spinal cord injuries, using imaging data from Vancouver General Hospital and a data registry from the Praxis Spinal Cord Institute in Vancouver.

Together with mechatronics professor Carolyn Sparrey and Dr. Brian Kwon, an internationally recognized surgeon-scientist at Vancouver General Hospital, Obaid is building a human model to simulate what happens to the spinal cord in older people with a hyperextension injury, and in particular, where there may be correlation with degeneration, to identify who may be most at risk for serious or further injuries.

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