Bulletin

Issue: September 2005

News

Two million dollars for a good walk

La Trobe University is one of five leading Melbourne research organisations to participate in a National Health and Medical Research Council Centre for Clinical Research Excellence (CCRE) grant of $2 million over five years to help people with disabilities walk better.

Federal Treasurer, Mr Peter Costello, and Dame Elisabeth Murdoch, patron of the Murdoch Children's Research Institute at the Royal Children's Hospital (RCH), recently opened the Centre for Research into Gait Analysis.

The five organisations will participate in a wide spectrum of research on two aspects of walking - clinical gait analysis, designed to further understanding of how humans walk, and gait rehabilitation, aimed at ascertaining how best to help people with walking problems.

The grant underscores Melbourne's position as the only city in the world with five international standard clinical gait analysis laboratories. Other organisations involved are Melbourne and Monash universities, RCH, and the Kingston Centre in Cheltenham.

La Trobe University's Musculoskeletal Research Centre and the School of Physiotherapy will be involved in research that employs movie and computer game technology to help improve mobility for patients with cerebral palsy, Parkinson's disease, osteoarthritis, stroke and sporting injuries.

Gait analysis uses high technology equipment to asses how people with disabilities walk.

'The goal is to improve the health of Australians through promoting clinical research into nine general areas,' says the leader of La Trobe's team, Dr Kate Webster, a Senior Research Fellow in the Musculoskeletal Research Centre.

Dr Webster, who works on knee replacement research with industry, said the nine areas included improving our general knowledge of measurement, the functional changes that accompany a syndrome or disease, and rehabilitation of walking.

'Other aspects to be examined include improving our knowledge of the cause of gait disorders and musculoskeletal conditions, establishing evidence for gait analysis and multi-disciplinary treatment of gait disorders and using this knowledge to help people maximise walking ability.

'The funds will also help to train clinicians in medicine, surgery, biomechanics and allied health areas, to foster international research with clinical and industry partners, to improve resource use, and to disseminate the knowledge generated from all parts of the program.

'The equipment the CCRE will have available will enable us to examine the walking process across the entire life span. We can study kicking babies, which is a precursor to walking, right through adolescence and adulthood to old age,' Dr Webster added.