Academic Report: Why You Can Stand on the Floor
Speaker: Heidi‐Lynn Ploeg Associate Professor Bone and Joint Biomechanics Laboratory
Time：2017.05.26 9:00-10:00 AM
Location：Conference Room, 4th Floor, Hydraulic Old Building, Yuquan Campus
Abstract:
"Why You Can Stand on the Floor" is in large part due to the mechanics of your musculo‐skeletal system, and is the primary research focus of the Bone and Joint Biomechanics (BJB) Laboratory. Osteoporosis (OP) is a debilitating disease of the musculo‐skeletal system and a major health concern in an aging population. Currently, OP affects 10 million Americans, that is 1 in 2 elderly women and 1 in 4 elderly men. However, according to the Administration on Aging: “By 2030, there will be about 70 million older persons, more than twice their number in 2000. People 65+ represented 12.4% of the population in the year 2000 but are expected to grow to be 20% of the population by 2030.” The projected costs of OP are therefore $45 billion by 2025 an increase of $10 billion from 2004. Contributing factors to OP are loss of skeletal integrity, inactivity and the development of sarcopenia in the aged. Conversely, exercise has been shown to reduce both arcopenia and retard bone loss in the aged. In animal models, exercise has been shown to increase skeletal integrity by 10 to 14% for the same mineral density. Solving the mysteries of how human tissue adapts to mechanical stimuli with increased strength will permit new and improved innovations in bone and joint health, disease prevention and treatment. The research goal of the BJB lab is to develop accurate physical and virtual models of the human musculo‐skeletal system for the planning and assessment of orthopaedic and rehabilitative procedures for:
Disease prevention
Designing biomedical devices
Planning surgical intervention
Enhancing computer aided surgery
Brief Bio:
Heidi‐Lynn Ploeg is an Associate Professor in the Departments of Mechanical Engineering, Biomedical Engineering, and Orthopedics and Rehabilitation at the University of Wisconsin‐Madison. Her career objective is to understand the human musculo‐skeletal system better, in order to aid the development of biomechanical and safe solutions for the care and treatment of diseased or injured systems. Her research interests include studying the nature of bone, bone growth and joint biomechanics as they relate to orthopaedic solutions as well as to the developing field of computer‐aided surgery. She joined the Mechanical Engineering faculty at UW‐Madison in 2003 and established the Bone and Joint Biomechanics (BJB) Lab. The BJB Lab is currently supporting 7 graduate students (4 PhD and 3 MS). Forty‐one graduate students have graduated from the BJB Lab. Prior to joining the UW‐Madison faculty, Dr. Ploeg was Project Manager and Deputy‐Coordinator of the Pre‐Clinical Stress Analysis Group at Zimmer GmbH, Winterthur, Switzerland. Including her ten years at Zimmer, she has 18 years of experience in research and analysis of orthopaedic devices. Dr. Ploeg has a BSc, MSc, and PhD in Mechanical Engineering from Queen's University at Kingston, Ontario, Canada.