World first course brings animation to medicine

Gait analysis equipment in use.

The University of Salford has secured £300,000 from the European Union to take technology widely used in the games and movie industries to the health care professions, by developing an MSc in Clinical Gait Analysis.

The new Masters will train physiotherapists and clinical scientists to use gait analysis equipment to examine people who have difficulty in walking and interpret the results to provide more effective treatment.

Though originally developed almost 30 years ago for healthcare, the gait analysis technology struggled to become widely adopted. Instead it was seized upon as a quick way of creating animations - notably in computer games and movies - and has become much more advanced and widely re-adopted for medicine.

Despite this, there is no specialised training in the use of the equipment - a lack which Salford's new course is designed to solve.

The course, which will be developed throughout the next year ready for 2013 admissions, will sit alongside a large portfolio of gait analysis at the University headed by Professor Richard Baker.

The University's facilities are already used by local surgeons and professional sports teams to treat walking problems and improve an athlete's speed and, as similar facilities become more common in medical settings, the course will provide skilled operators.

The course will be developed alongside two other leading centres in gait analysis: VU University, Amsterdam, and the Catholic University, Leuven, Belgium. The grant has been awarded by the EU's Lifelong Learning Programme.

Professor Baker said: "This grant acknowledges Salford's position as a European leader in clinical movement analysis and our commitment to becoming a centre for excellence. Providing training in this area will help bring a far better standard of treatment to people with walking difficulties."