Patient-Centered Digital Platform for Assessing and Detecting Fall Risk

This Translational Science Grand Rounds presentation will focus on identifying gait, balance, and hand-function deficits relevant to fall-risk assessment in patients with degenerative cervical myelopathy; comparing the tablet-based assessment measures with laboratory, clinical, imaging, and patient-reported measures used in the study; and evaluating the study findings and limitations when considering the use of digital functional assessment in clinical practice.

Presented by Ram Haddas, PhD, MBA, Director, URochester Medicine Motion Analysis Laboratories; Assistant Professor, University of Rochester Medicine. This Translational Science Grand Rounds event is sponsored and organized by the Clinical and Translational Science Institute.

The mission of Dr. Haddas is to transform musculoskeletal care by replacing subjective functional assessment with objective biomechanical biomarkers that enable precision orthopaedic diagnosis, treatment, and recovery. Traditional clinical assessments often rely on patient-reported outcomes, imaging, and observational examination, which do not always reflect how patients truly function. His work focuses on translating advanced biomechanics into practical clinical tools that objectively measure disability, guide surgical decision-making, personalize rehabilitation, and track recovery over time.

As Director of the URochester Medicine Motion Analysis Laboratories and Assistant Professor of Orthopaedics and Biomedical Engineering, he leads multidisciplinary teams that integrate clinical care, engineering, and translational research. Their work leverages 3D motion capture, markerless motion analysis, wearable sensors, and neuromuscular modeling to develop objective Disability and Functional Outcome Measurements (DFO

Ms) for patients with spine, shoulder, hip, knee, sports medicine, and pediatric neurological conditions.

Over the past 15+ years, he has authored more than 100 peer-reviewed publications and developed award-winning methodologies for objective functional assessment. He collaborates with clinicians, researchers, healthcare systems, and industry partners to translate complex biomechanical data into actionable insights that improve patient care and advance precision orthopaedics. He also serves as an expert witness and biomechanics consultant in medicolegal cases involving spine injuries, slip-and-fall incidents, motor vehicle collisions, and other complex injury mechanisms, providing scientifically rigorous analyses of injury causation, functional impairment, and biomechanical plausibility.

He is passionate about bridging research, clinical practice, and biomechanics to make objective movement analysis a standard component of musculoskeletal care while advancing evidence-based injury evaluation.

Accreditation

The University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) to provide continuing medical education for physicians.