ACCEL Researcher of the Quarter

Dr. Sions is also the Director of the University of Delaware’s Interdisciplinary Amputee Clinic, established in 2013, which is a collaborative initiative among the University of Delaware, Independence Prosthetics-Orthotics, Inc., and the Christiana Health Care System that seeks to answer clinically-relevant research questions. The clinic has provided team-based, prosthetic evaluations for nearly 300 adults from Delaware and surrounding states, while training over 50 researchers and practitioners, i.e. physical therapists, prosthetists, nurses, and bioengineers, in evidence-based post-amputation care.

Dr. J. Megan Sions, PhD, DPT, PT is an assistant professor in the Department of Physical Therapy at the University of Delaware. As principal investigator of the Delaware Limb Loss Studies, her research focuses on the evaluation and rehabilitation of individuals with limb loss and limb difference to improve health-related outcomes. She is in her second year of a NIH-funded study that will determine whether trunk muscle impairments and asymmetries are associated with the presence of lower-limb loss. Results of this NIH study will inform the development of future, longitudinal work evaluating whether trunk muscle impairments predict balance, function, and community participation, and thus, should be considered as potential modifiable factors in future interventional studies designed to optimize function following lower-limb loss.

Dr. Sions has been awarded funding through the ACCEL CTR program and is conducting research on Somatosensory Dysfunction, Prosthetic Use, and Function in Adults with Limb Loss.