Dr. Wanek's clinical research is in the area of adolescent medicine especially adolescents and children with back pain and other aches and pains. The first study in collaboration with Professor Arriaga surveyed high school students and found that a large percentage had back pain of long duration. There were no correlations with back pain and anything such as sports or time watching TV or time spent studying, etc. Pain spikes about the time of puberty. Dr. Wanek and Professor Arriaga then went on to determine the effects of education on proper biomechanics. They developed an education module for 5th grade students and taught these students prior to puberty about proper keyboarding and lifting. Their first study showed that a brief intervention was retained for over one year. The same group will be retested this year and a pain survey will be added. The students will then have been studied in 5th, 6th, and now 8th grades.

Location
San Francisco State University
1600 Holloway Ave.
San Francisco, CA 94132