Walk This Way: Gait Assessment Technology Steps Forward

The usual purpose of lower-limb orthoses and prostheses is to enable or improve the wearer’s gait. How well the device achieves this goal has historically been judged subjectively by the patient and clinician. “Nevertheless,” says Joan E. Edelstein, MA, PT, FISPO, CPed, adjunct professor in the Department of Physical Therapy at New York University (NYU), New York, and a former senior research scientist in the now defunct NYU Department of Prosthetics and Orthotics, “one’s opinion of the ease and comfort of walking, while important, is idiosyncratic. No one can really know another person’s feelings.” Consequently, it is imperative that an unbiased person documents the efficacy of the treatment using objective measurements. “Accurate [valid] and consistent [reliable] measurements,” she says, “are fundamental to objective measurement.”