Development of decision support tools for gait analysis and rehabilitation utilizing the integrated biomechanics informatics system (IBIS)

Integration of sports medicine and human performance is a developing field with the potential to aid people of various abilities. Previous work done has shown the normalization of sports medicine data as well as the building of a framework for the storage and retrieval of sports medicine data. The result of this is the Integrated Biomechanics Informatics System (IBIS). IBIS has the capacity to store, view, and retrieve data and can also be expanded to include different sports medicine research related applications. One such application is a data processing application to create force vector overlays for decision support. Users were able to log into IBIS using secure personal logins and access the data processing application to create force vector overlays. The efficacy of the data processing application was tested by having users process data to create force vector overlays using the IBIS application and then comparing it to the traditional workflow. The new workflow using the IBIS application was found to be quicker and easier to use than the traditional workflow while generating identical results. The deployment of this data processing tool for decision support shows the capability of IBIS to be expanded to include more tools such as automatic foot contact detection. In the future we hope to apply these developed tools in a clinical setting with our collaborators at Rancho Los Amigos National Rehabilitation Center, and therefore show the efficacy of this tool and IBIS in a clinical environment with a variety of patients.