Skip to Content (press ENTER)

Header Skipped.

Research

Helping Patients Move Smarter, Stronger and Better

Our research is aimed at understanding the relationships between lower extremity structure, mechanics and musculoskeletal injury. We are also interested in developing strategies and interventions that help to mitigate injury risk. We utilize imaging, modeling, and experimental approaches to answer our research questions.

Overview

The Spaulding National Running Center is part of Spaulding Rehabilitation and Mass General Brigham Health. Our multidisciplinary team strives to be leaders in translational research that advances patient care of running related injuries. Clinical care is directed through evidence-based research and aims to provide cutting edge use of novel technologies such as wearable devices to guide gait retraining and delivery of healthcare through use of telehealth. We utilize the expertise of Spaulding Rehabilitation and Mass General Brigham Health to provide interventions such as shockwave and regenerative medicine techniques that aim to avoid surgery and restore function.

Research Areas

Our past, current and future investigations relate to the following areas:

  • Structural and biomechanical factors related to:
    • Patellofemoral pain syndrome
    • Iliotibial band syndrome
    • Plantar fasciitis
    • Stress fractures
    • Achilles tendinitis
    • Knee osteoarthritis
  • Imaging of the patellofemoral joint, foot & ankle during dynamic activities
  • Gait retraining to reduce abnormal mechanics in both walking and running
  • Multi-segment foot models
  • The influence of a myriad of variables on running injury risk, including:
    • Intrinsic factors (age, sex)
    • Foot strike type
    • Footwear choice (from barefoot to maximally cushioned shoes)
    • Speed
    • Previous injury history
    • Other mechanics
  • Development and testing of mobile systems to monitor and provide feedback on running mechanics outside of the laboratory
  • Gait abnormalities and retraining for persons with lower extremity amputations
  • Development of systems using small, mobile sensors to monitor gait and provide gait retraining outside of the laboratory

 

Published Research

Read our published research.