Distinguished Professor, College of Health Sciences, University of Delaware
James Richards joined the University of Delaware faculty as an assistant professor in 1980. He is currently a Professor in the Department of Kinesiology and Applied Physiology and director of the Biomechanics Laboratory. He also holds a faculty appointment in the interdisciplinary graduate program in Biomechanics and Movement Sciences, a program he co-founded in 1995 and directed from 1995 to 2000.
His research focuses on the development and application of new measurement approaches to facilitate understanding and treatment of upper extremity impairments. His ancillary work in sports biomechanics is focused primarily on figure skating jumps and landings. Throughout the last 10 years, he has worked with United States Figure Skating on projects designed to improve jumping technique and reduce training injuries.
Is the data from your lab as accurate as it can be?
Tuesday, March 26, 2019, 10:15am
The field of human movement analysis relies primarily on optical motion capture systems to collect data for research and the planning and evaluation of patient treatment outcomes. Compared to the early days of motion capture, all aspects of hardware have improved dramatically. Motion capture systems are now available in resolutions between 1 and 15 megapixels, and some systems can collect data at frame rates of up to 1000 frames/sec. Integration of ancillary instrumentation including force plates and EMG has been simplified, and many components are now available with digital outputs that minimize the number of cables and enable pre-processing of data. The tracking algorithms are far more robust, and users will rarely encounter errors that disrupt the collection process. Improvements in software, computing power and networking enable markers to be tracked in near real time, and companies focused on providing real time feedback from combined motion, force, and EMG data have begun to emerge. Despite the advancements in motion capture technology, the fundamental properties of motion capture systems are the same as they were twenty years ago, and care needs to be taken to ensure that systems are appropriately configured and calibrated in order to accurately record human motion data. This presentation will address best practices associated with using motion laboratory instrumentation, observed practices that can result in less than optimal system function, and recommendations for maximizing system accuracy.
Learning Objectives:
- Attendees should understand optical properties of motion capture systems that impact data collection accuracy.
- Attendees should develop an appreciation of the importance of creating a checklist for setting up and operating a motion capture system.
- Attendees should understand key aspects of installing and testing force plates
Chief Quality Officer, Cincinnati Children’s Hospital, Professor, University of Cincinnati Department of Pediatrics
Dr. Stephen Muething is the Chief Quality Officer and the Co-Director of the James M. Anderson Center for Health Systems Excellence at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center and Professor of Pediatrics at The University of Cincinnati College of Medicine. Dr. Muething was awarded the Michael and Suzette Fisher Family Chair for Safety at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center.He now focuses on the strategic goals of Cincinnati Children’s to improve all aspects of care including safety, outcomes, experience and affordability. His improvement work and research focuses on high reliability culture, situation awareness, managing by prediction and lean leadership.
Dr Muething was one of the founders of the Children’s Hospital Solution for Patient Safety (SPS) and now serves as the Strategic Advisor. This network of more than 125 children’s hospitals across the United States and Canada is collaborating to eliminate serious safety events for both patients and staff.He serves on multiple national pediatric safety groups and is a frequent consultant for regional, national and international safety and quality initiatives. He has lectured in more than a dozen countries.
Dr Muething started as a solo practitioner and spent the first decade of his clinical career building a pediatric practice and inpatient unit in rural Indiana.He then focused on inpatient systems at Cincinnati Children’s as the first leader of the Hospital Medicine program and was at the forefront of multiple transformations in care delivery including family-centered rounds, systematic adoption of evidence-based practice and inpatient microsystems.
Cutting Edge Quality Improvement: Improving Every Person’s Gait by Learning Together
Friday, March 29, 2019, 8:15am
The National Academies of Medicine and Engineering have been promoting the concepts of a learning healthcare system over the last ten years. Experts believe we have the potential to dramatically improve the rate of improvement for populations in need. There is growing evidence the gap between development of new clinical breakthroughs and reliable application into practice can be improved using techniques from other fields including networking theory and improvement science. In this session, we will break down the theory into key drivers. We will go through examples from healthcare where important clinical outcomes are improving more rapidly through partnerships of patients, clinicians and researchers. We will have time for discussion and questions of how this could be applicable to conditions served by attendees.
Learning Objectives:
- Attendees will understand key drivers of developing a learning health system.
- Attendees will see concrete examples of national groups accelerating improvement in clinical outcomes through collaboration.
- Attendees will understand the potential for application of this approach to improving gait for applicable individuals.
