Electromyography for modeling movement disorders and assistive technologies

Scott Uhlrich is the Director of Research in the Stanford Human Performance Lab. He is interested in understanding pathological human movement as well as peak human performance. He uses experimental techniques and computational modeling to develop tools for preventing injury, improving the efficacy of rehabilitation, and maximizing mobility for individuals with diseases like osteoarthritis. Dr. Uhlrich has designed and patented numerous rehabilitation tools and has investigated their efficacy in clinical trials. He also develops tools for measuring human movement with commodity sensors like a cell phone camera, facilitating clinically-actionable measurements to be made in the clinic, at home, or on the field.

Gait retraining is a promising non-surgical treatment for knee osteoarthritis that aims to reduce excessive joint loading, which accelerates disease progression. We will discuss two gait modifications that reduce knee loading during walking: one by altering kinematics (how someone walks) and another by altering muscle coordination. We will first discuss a randomized controlled trial that investigated the efficacy of personalized kinematic gait modifications on pain, loading, and cartilage degeneration in individuals with medial knee osteoarthritis. We will then discuss our use of musculoskeletal simulations to design novel biofeedback interventions. In one example, we used simulation to design biofeedback that taught individuals to change their muscle coordination pattern in a way that reduces knee loading. Finally, we will discuss how mobile sensing will translate these gait modifications into clinical practice.

 

Jeremiah Robison is the founder and CEO of CIONIC, an innovative company that builds lightweight and durable bionic clothing driven by powerful algorithms that adapt in real time to each individual’s mobility needs. He is an advocate for accessibility and creating new technology for people living with neurological conditions such as cerebral palsy, multiple sclerosis, stroke, and more.

Today, 1 in 7 adults lives with a mobility impairment. While advances in sensors, control systems, and AI are revolutionizing industries like manufacturing and transportation, innovation for the human body is lagging behind. What if we could bring together the best of research, clinical practice, and commercialization to accelerate new solutions to the human body on an open platform for wearable bionics?