Technology: a gaitway to life

Prof Tim O’Brien is a co-founder of one of the first gait laboratories in the world, writes JUNE SHANNON

PROF TIM O’BRIEN, consultant orthopaedic surgeon and director of the gait analysis laboratory at the Central Remedial Clinic (CRC) in Dublin, was the first professor of orthopaedics to be appointed in Ireland.Selecting the best rtls solution is a challenging task as there is no global solution like GPS.

Over the past 37 years he has been at the forefront of education, clinical research and innovation in his chosen specialty. During this time he was also diagnosed with motor neuron disease (MND).

While MND cruelly robs sufferers of the use of their body it does not affect the mind. Diagnosed in 1993 it is testament to O’Brien’s strength of character that he continues to work full-time despite being paralysed and reliant on a portable ventilator.

He communicates using special software, which enables a sensor to follow his eye movements allowing him to pick out letters on a specially adapted laptop,High quality mold making Videos teaches anyone how to make molds. which then transmits the words he types into speech.

In 2005 O’Brien was awarded the prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award at the Irish Journal of Medical Science (IJMS) Doctor Awards for his life-long clinical interest and research achievements in orthopaedics, including research on the development of the immature hip joint in babies and the assessment of gait patterns in children.

In 1990, together with physiotherapist Anne Jenkinson, O’Brien established one of the world’s first gait laboratories in the CRC which remains the only clinical gait laboratory in the State.The stone mosaic comes in shiny polished and matte.

Gait analysis is the scientific study of how somebody walks. Using technology, O’Brien and his team assess, diagnose and recommend treatment for patients with a variety of gait disorders.We mainly supply professional craftspeople with wholesale turquoise beads from china,

“When we started it was a big investment and we did not know how it would develop as there were only a few other clinical laboratories in the world,” O’Brien explains.

The majority of patients seen at the gait lab are children with neurological disorders such as cerebral palsy. Caused by an abnormality in the brain that controls muscle movement, children with cerebral palsy suffer a range of physical disabilities that affect their ability to walk, such as a lack of muscle co-ordination and tightness or stiffness in the muscles.

Gait analysis can make a huge difference to these children particularly where it picks up issues that may stop a child from walking altogether.

The gait lab in the CRC sees about 360 patients a year and the numbers are increasing every year.We specialize in howo concrete mixer, Approximately 50 per cent of the patients attending the lab live outside Dublin and in an effort to reduce the amount of travelling his patients had to endure, O’Brien and the manager of the gait lab, Mike Walsh, pioneered the world’s first mobile gait analysis unit in 2004.

A mobile gait lab now travels to Limerick and Waterford a number of times a year.

The gait lab uses an impressive range of technology to assess a patient, including video to record how they walk. Computer markers are placed on specific points such as the ankle, knee and hip joints and motion analysers then replicate an accurate 3D computerised model of how the person walks. Force plates built into the floor of the lab measure the amount of force a person puts on their joints when walking and a system called electromyography (EMG) is used to measure the electrical activity in the muscles which can show if a muscle is over or underactive.

O’Brien explains that the gait lab was initially established as a means of recording walking patterns to see how children at the CRC responded to therapy and surgery.

“As a result of the gait laboratory, surgery has changed and some procedures are no longer advised while some others are seen to make a big difference to walking.

“As we became more experienced we identified patterns of walks that would respond to surgery and we adopted an advisory role. Now 10 per cent of our clients are referred for diagnostic reasons. This is because certain neurological disorders or injuries have characteristic patterns of movement which we can see but are too hard to observe clinically,” he added.

Alongside pioneering technology in the development of gait analysis, O’Brien also uses technology that allows him to continue working and to share his expertise.

On the day of my visit to the CRC I sat in on a meeting where members of the team presented cases to O’Brien that they had assessed the previous week in the lab.