Clinical and Rehabilitation Biomechanics

a child walks on force plates with markers while one person observes and another looks at data on a computer

Clinical Biomechanics focuses on patient populations to investigate movement and joint loading patterns during treatment within hospitals, clinical, and rehabilitation centers.

Results from this work are used to create new strategies for improving quality of life and inform rehabilitation protocols.

Clinical Biomechanists often work with professionals in rehabilitation and medical settings to create new advanced interventions and more efficient assistive devices.

This area of biomechanics uses tools like gait analysis, muscle and strength testing, and simulation to understand pathologies such as:

Stroke
Knee osteoarthritis
Peripheral artery disease
Diabetes
Cerebral palsy
Parkinson’s disease

The Kid, the Scientists, and the Walk That Changed Everything

For most of his nine years, Theo Brewer couldn’t walk without falling or tripping due to an unbalanced gate.

Then a team of researchers in UNO’s Clinical Gait Analysis Lab wired him up with sensors, watched how he moved, and gave his doctors something no one else could: answers.

Changing patient care