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

Numaira Obaid was interviewed and featured in the SFU News for her research on investigating how age-related degeneration impacts geriatric spinal injuries. She hopes her findings will help develop better fall prevention strategies.

Dr. Obaid is a postdoctoral fellow in at the SFU’s Surrey-based Neurospine Biomechanics Lab working alingside with SFU MSE professor Carolyn Sparrey and Dr. Brian Kwon, an internationally recognized surgeon-scientist at Vancouver General Hospital, she 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.