Ride University

Sharon Sonenblum is a clinical researcher at Georgia Tech, with a background in biomechanical engineering. Her primary goal is to use applied research and development to increase health and function of persons with disabilities.

For over a decade, she has been leading the application of real-world activity monitoring to research on wheelchair users. This work has included the monitoring of specialized features (e.g., tilt and recline, standing, seat elevators), wheelchair propulsion and in-seat movement.

Sharon is very interested in pressure ulcer prevention and individualized risk assessment and intervention and has ongoing research studies (funded by NIDILRR and DoD) that combine activity monitoring with the question of pressure ulcer risk to determine the role of in-seat movement in pressure ulcer prevention for individuals with spinal cord injuries. She has also developed methods to image the seated buttocks in 3D and use those images to study how the buttocks soft tissues deform when seated on different surfaces, and what clinical measurements can help to predict differences in those deformations across individuals.