HN Summary
• Cutting-Edge Care: Opened in January 2024 at Holland Bloorview, the Motion Analysis Centre uses 3D gait analysis to help children with physical disabilities move more efficiently and support surgical and rehabilitation planning.
• Collaborative Impact: A multidisciplinary team from Holland Bloorview, SickKids, and SHN has already assessed over 200 children from across Ontario, improving clinical decision-making and outcomes for kids undergoing complex orthopedic procedures.
• Future Innovation: The centre is building a Canadian Pediatric Motion Analysis Network and data repository to drive research, precision health, and innovation in mobility care for children nationwide.
3D gait analysis supports precision health and clinical decision making for children with physical disabilities
Holland Bloorview’s Motion Analysis Centre has a simple mission – to help children with physical disabilities who are ambulatory move in the most efficient way possible. Why is this so important? To enable kids to maximize their participation doing the things they love the most – including walking, running or playing.
The Motion Analysis Centre, housed in Holland Bloorview’s High Performance Hub, has been up and running since January 2024. Thanks to a historic funding commitment from the provincial government, the centre has been able to dramatically increase the number of children who can access vital gait assessments prior to undergoing orthopedic surgery on their muscles and bones and selective dorsal rhizotomy at both The Hospital For Sick Children (SickKids) and the Scarborough Health Network (SHN). To date, the Motion Analysis Centre team has seen more than 200 children with referrals coming from across Ontario and as far away as Timmins, Windsor and Ottawa and the team continues to explore ways to increase the use of gait analysis in different populations to support a range of orthopedic surgical decision-making.
A multidisciplinary team made up of orthopedic surgeons from SickKids, a biomedical engineering specialist and physiotherapists from Holland Bloorview work collaboratively to optimize data collected using motion capture technology. This allows teams to better understand complex gait patterns and improve clinical decision making. Clinically, the data is used to assist in surgical planning, in designing rehabilitation programs and to track improvements and changes over time. It’s a powerful example of how precision health is directly improving the patient experience, and outcomes, for children with disabilities across the province.
“Gait” describes walking patterns in more detail by looking at things including distance between steps or leg position. Since walking is a repetitive motion, gait can be broken down into a cycle that repeats. Gait can be observed using videos, position-tracking systems or simply using one’s eyes. All these techniques looking at the gait cycle are considered “gait analysis.”
The Motion Analysis Centre performs 3D gait analysis using reflective markers and motion capture cameras—the same technology that is used in computer-generated imagery (CGI) for action movies and video games. This helps create a walking model of the skeleton to analyze how pediatric patients move.
“We care for many children with neuromuscular conditions that have a profound impact on their mobility. Many of these children can walk, but the complex involvement of tight muscles, contracted joints and bone deformity mean that each child needs a specially tailored treatment plan to give them the best outcome. Three-dimensional gait analysis gives us incredibly detailed information to help guide the surgical and rehabilitation plan,” say Drs. Richard Gardner and Unni Narayanan, orthopedic surgeons at SickKids. “We are immensely proud and grateful to have this facility at Holland Bloorview. It is already an integral part of our patient assessment and furthers our ability to provide the highest standard of care.”
In addition to working with surgical teams at SickKids and SHN, Holland Bloorview’s Motion Analysis Centre is also in the early stages of creating a Canadian Pediatric Motion Analysis Network that includes labs in British Columbia, Alberta, Quebec and Newfoundland.
Chun Kim, a physiotherapist at Holland Bloorview, says the Motion Analysis Centre is one of only two centres in the province that are using this precision health approach to maximize the benefits of surgery. “It ultimately allows kids to maximize the benefits of surgery and return quickly to what matters most, just being kids,” he says. “Whether that is walking, running, stair climbing or biking we envision performing more and more of these unique assessments to make these goals more attainable.”
In partnership with researchers at the Bloorview Research Institute, the team is working to validate new technologies/techniques and build a repository of gait-related data in the populations we serve. This first of its kind data repository will drive our understanding of what pediatric movement looks like within the diverse populations we serve, as well as compared it to other populations. Why? To drive discovery and innovation in ambulation, leading to more precision surgical and rehabilitation interventions to promote the best possible outcomes for children and youth across the province, country and world to assist children and families reach their movement goals.
Learn more about how the Motion Analysis Centre is changing lives one step at a time.
Anthony Danial is the clinical operations manager, Motion Analysis Centre and neuromotor and selective dorsal rhizotomy programs at Holland Bloorview Kids Rehabilitation Hospital.
