Medical College of Wisconsin
Medical College of Wisconsin Medical College of Wisconsin
Patient Couch
Orthopaedic Surgery

Medical College of Wisconsin Center for Motion Analysis

The Center for Motion Analysis (CMA) is designed to support a broad scope of both clinical and research oriented projects. Clinically, the center can provide gait analyses for both pediatric and adult patients, which enhance diagnoses and improve functional outcomes for neuromuscular and orthopaedic impairments as well as dysfunction caused by other deformities.

Motion abnormalities include complex alterations imposed by the musculoskeletal and neuromuscular systems, as well as secondary adaptations that the patient makes in order to function. Identification of these patterns is extremely difficult, even for the trained clinician.


Center for Motion Analysis

About the Lab

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About the Lab
Quantitative motion assessment includes specialty models for the distal extremities (foot and ankle, upper extremity, hand and wrist, trunk) sports applications and higher speed analysis capability, and rehabilitation (assistive devices, prosthetics and orthotics.) Educational support through clinical training and research project participation is provided for research fellows, orthopaedic residents, medical students and engineering students. Numerous technical development projects are supported through close collaboration with the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Marquette University. The center also collaborates with Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin, Froedtert Hospital, and other institutions (MSOE, UWM and CUW).

Research applications include studies of surgical interventions, orthotic and prosthetic treatments, and therapy upon upper and lower extremity motion and control.

Motion analysis provides a frame-by-frame analysis of the three-dimensional joint motion, limb kinematics, kinetics, and muscular activity. While changes from activity patterns of age-matched normals are used to formulate a clinical treatment plan, research studies of pathological motion and muscular control patterns are designed to increase our understanding and ultimately our ability to improve future diagnosis, treatment and injury prevention.

Equipment
Equipment in the CMA includes twelve T40 Vicon MX cameras for motion capture, two AMTI 6 D.O.F force plates, two Bertec 6 D.O.F force plates,1 Novel EMED pressure platform, 1 Novel PEDAR insole pressure measurement system, F-Scan foot insole pressure measurement system, 16 channel Delsys Trigno wireless EMG system (surface and fine wire), 8 channel Noraxon surface and fine wire EMG system, Biodex extremity evaluation system, Vicon Nexus software for data collection and processing, Vicon Polygon software for constructing reports, Vicon Body Builder software for model construction, EMG analysis software for Delsys and Noraxon, FANDACAL – Foot and ankle motion analysis software, Walker Assisted Gait (WAG) torso and upper extremity motion analysis software, and Matlab software.
Funding
Medical College of Wisconsin Department of Orthopaedic Surgery with support from Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin, and the Orthopaedic & Rehabilitation Engineering Center (Marquette University/The Medical College of Wisconsin).
Personnel
Educational support through clinical training and research project participation is provided by Jessica Fritz, PhD (Research Director) and Dr. Xue-Cheng Liu (Co-Director).
Space
The CMA facilities provide a 2,325 sq. ft. test area, examination/preparation area, offices, and storage at the Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin Greenway Clinic. A 30 ft. walkway is included in the test area for collection of ambulatory data. A 1,071 sq. ft. area is located adjacent to the testing area for support personnel and includes an examination room, equipment storage room and test bench, two offices and a working community area for research fellows and students.