Scott Uhrlich working with someone on motion capture for gate training
Before this intervention can be clinically deployed, the gait retraining process will need to be streamlined. The motion capture technique used to make the original foot angle prescription is expensive and time-consuming; using new mobile sensing technology, the researchers envision this intervention to eventually be prescribed in a physical therapy clinic and retraining can happen while people go for a walk around their neighborhood.

Nearly a quarter of people over the age of 40 experience painful osteoarthritis, making it a leading cause of disability in adults. Osteoarthritis involves degradation of joint-cushioning cartilage, and there is currently no way of reversing this damage: the only option is to manage pain with medication, and eventually, joint replacement.

Researchers from The University of Utah, New York University, and Stanford University are now demonstrating the potential for another option: gait retraining.

By making a small adjustment to the angle of their foot while walking, participants in a year-long randomized control trial experienced pain relief equivalent to medication. Critically, those participants also showed less knee cartilage degradation over that period as compared to a group that received a placebo treatment.

Published in The Lancet Rheumatology, it is the first placebo-controlled study to demonstrate the potential effectiveness of a biomechanical intervention for osteoarthritis.

It was led by Scott Uhlrich, assistant professor in the John and Marcia Price College of Engineering’s Department of Mechanical Engineering, Valentina Mazzoli, Assistant Professor in NYU’s Department of Radiology, and Julie Kolesar, research engineer in Stanford’s Human Performance Lab. Their coauthors include Amy Silder, Andrea Finlay, Feliks Kogan, Garry Gold, Scott Delp, and Gary Beaupre of Stanford and the Palo Alto VA.

You can read more on the Price College of Engineering Website

Or check out the Washington Post’s article: “A small change in how you walk may help reduce knee pain“