Prosthetic Gait Training Tool

Due to availability, time, and cost, observational gait analysis is used by clinicians as a tool in treating individuals with lower limb amputations. This approach has been shown to be of questionable validity and not very reliable, therefore there is a need for a more effective and validated means of assessing gait.  We hypothesize that a computer-based training tool can be developed to improve the ability of clinicians to use observational gait analysis.

As there is little information available on the ability of clinicians to detect gait deviations the first objective of this project was to create a tool to measure the user’s sensitivity and accuracy to detect differences in joint angles. This will be done by creating a survey where images of a joint, are compared and judged to be similar or different. The survey was created using different representations of prosthetic gait from motion capture data, videos of the gait patterns, and Qualtrics online survey software.

The final survey includes: introduction slide, sample question slide with an overview of the question style, and 30 comparison questions using images of 3 joint angles (hip, knee, ankle) in skeletal or avatar form. Preliminary testing was done on the basis of visual display, skeletal form was preferred.

Future developments for the project will be to test the survey on clinicians and develop a scouring rubric that will evaluate the users’ progression.  From the results collected, further analysis would be used to determine the most effective way of displaying the images.