Controlling for speed in normative reference data used in clinical gait analysis data

The fundamental process of clinical gait analysis is to compare measurements of how a patient walks to reference data taken from a range of healthy individuals in order to understand the impairments that are limiting their walking ability. The gait pattern of healthy individuals varies with walking speed and the walking speed of most patients is slower than that of those individuals. Differences between patient and normative reference data are thus a combination of those that are simply a consequence of reduced walking speed and those that are characteristic of the specific pathology.

The aim of this project is to develop methods for to allow clinical gait analysts to compare patient data against speed matched reference data.

The project will involve a large data collection exercise to create and new database of healthy individuals walking at a range of speeds. We hope that it will involve collation of data from a range of different centres nationally and internationally. Advanced statistical techniques (probably using mixed non-linear regression models) will then be used to generate mean and standard deviation ranges for normative reference data across the range of clinically useful gait variables customised to the measured walking speed of the individual patient. It will extend to an evaluation of how such data processing affects the interpretation that clinicians make on the basis of the data.

Context
The University of Salford has a strong record of research in clinical gait analysis which is an important component of the School of Health Science’s contribution to the Health Industrial Collaboration Zone. It operates a clinical gait analysis service as a model of best clinical practice and as a platform to support and integrate research, innovation and continuing education of health professionals. This project builds on work funded by the university’s post-doctoral Pathways to Excellence scheme which has employed Dr Fabien Leboeuf to develop a new biomechanical model for clinical gait analysis in collaboration with Vicon. This project will provide important validation of the new model. It is hoped that the normative data collection process will extend across a range of Vicon users (nationally and internationally) and provide a unique resource for future developments in clinical gait analysis.

Health Sciences Research at the University of Salford
The Centre for Health Sciences Research at the University of Salford comprises a multidisciplinary team of staff and research students drawn from the health professions and related disciplines. The research centre has world class research facilities including three biomechanics laboratories and currently boasts over £5 million pounds of research funding. There is also a vibrant community of approximately 100 students studying either at Ph.D. level or Master’s by research.

For this studentship, you will work within the Clinical Gait Analysis research group, see: http://www.salford.ac.uk/research/health-sciences/research-groups/gait-analysis. To find out more the research undertaken in Health Sciences at Salford see: http://www.salford.ac.uk/research/health-sciences.

Student
This project requires someone with a wide range of skills and could be suited to students from a range of backgrounds. It requires someone with a high level of numeracy who is interested in the statistical issues. It will also require considerable gait analysis data capture and we hope will involve liaising with other centres nationally and internationally to collate a multi-centre dataset. This will require someone with good communication and collaborative skills. It would be ideally suited to someone with existing clinical gait analysis experience or wishing to move into the field.