Third year physical therapy student Angela Richardson won first place for her research at a North Carolina Physical Therapy Association meeting, Oct. 6-7. Richardson’s research, titled “Ischial and Sacral Pressures Exerted by the TotaLift II Chair,” focused on a way to rid patients of pressure ulcers. In her research, Richardson explains patients’ need to sit upright to improve cardiovascular conditioning, but that the patients’ “soft tissues are unable to sustain the high pressures exerted by this posture in most chairs.” The TotaLift Chair allows patients to sit in ways that help their condition by using specific angles and types of cushion to relieve the unwanted pressure. Richardson recruited 44 volunteers and used the Xsensor Pressure Mapping System to measure the ischial and sacral pressures using different seat angles and cushion sizes of the chair. Her research results will help those in critical care units who are unable to feel pressure building and move to relieve that pressure themselves.