Professor Alison McGregor describes an initiative to delay surgery for arthritic patients, extending their mobility and functionality.

How are you approaching this issue?

We want to implement a regular screening process for people over a certain age. This involves doing some very detailed testing to measure certain parameters like how the person walks and how the joints move, using technology similar to motion capture used in the animation industry. By applying mathematical and statistical models to these data, we can see if certain movements cause damage to the joints, identify who is more at risk of osteoarthritis and intervene early to try and manage it before surgery becomes the only option.

What is the next step?

Professor Alison McGregor

Tell is about your work looking at back pain and prevention with the British rowing team?

Typically, athletes fail to engage with the idea that they are damaging their body until it is too late. By developing a simple visual system that used real-time biofeedback to illustrate how changing their movements could achieve maximum performance while doing minimal damage, we found that they were more likely to understand and implement the change very quickly.

For help in finding a commercial application for your research visit: bit.ly/YQZ1Vi