Visakhapatnam: GITAM conducts webinar on instrumented analysis of gait

Visakhapatnam: Walking is an important human activity. Advancing science and technology has facilitated man to understand the walking process, detect problems associated with it and rectify them through rehabilitation.

Highlighting these points and steps to improve understanding of human walking using advanced technology, the GITAM School of Physiotherapy conducted a webinar on instrumented analysis of gait and balance-recent advances.

The webinar emphasised on recent advancements in the analysis of walking detailed through case scenarios such as 'Muscle force distribution following a foot drop' and 'reaction strategies in response to perturbations during different phases of gait.' About 265 post-graduate students, research scholars, and practitioners from the field of physiotherapy and movement sciences across the country registered for the interactive session.

The resource person for the session was Michalina Błażkiewicz, faculty member at the Józef Piłsudski University of Physical Education in Warsaw, Poland, and visiting faculty at GITAM through Erasmus+ programme. The session was moderated by Associate Professor Ranganath Gangavelli.

As a part of her seven-day trip to the institution, Michalina delivered a lecture on advanced methods of posture control to faculty and aided in training for students of GSPT on basics of Biomechanics. She also discussed various equipment options and set up of the Biomechanics Lab at the institution. Different research projects in the fast-advancing field of Biomechanics were planned in association with GSPT and University of Warsaw which has close to 90 years of rich experience in the stream.

This apart, faculty and student exchange programmes and other methods of association were also discussed to take this mutually beneficial association way forward.