Disability Resources and Educational Services, Engineering
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Prof. Jan is Director of Rehabilitation Engineering Lab in the Division of Disability Resources and Educational Services. He is committed to developing rehabilitation technologies for the prevention and management of secondary conditions in people with impaired mobility. He is recognized for research in microvascular dynamics and soft tissue biomechanics and their roles in the development of pressure ulcers, one of the most significant secondary conditions in wheelchair users. Prof. Jan has extensively published his research work to improve the understanding of the effect of various pathophysiological conditions (spinal cord injury, aging, diabetes, physical inactivity) on microvascular dysfunction and how this impairment contributes to the development of pressure ulcers. His pioneering work on using linear wavelet and nonlinear complexity analyses to characterize blood flow oscillations has been awarded research grants from the NIH, NIDRR, PVA Foundation and Reeve Foundation. Based on Prof. Jan’s findings, patterns of blood flow oscillations have a great potential to assess the risk of pressure ulcers and evaluate the efficacy of various preventive interventions in people with impaired mobility, including people with spinal cord injury, people with lower limb amputation, diabetics and elderly wheelchair users.
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