Grant: Doctoral Award - Frederick Banting and Charles Best Canada Graduate Scholarships

Knee osteoarthritis (OA) is a common chronic disease associated with pain, loss of mobility and reduced quality of life. There is no cure for OA, and treatment for many people involves expensive surgeries or life-long drug regimens, both carrying high risk of side effects. New treatments, including changing the way people walk - termed gait modification - have been developed to slow disease progression and improve symptoms, while reducing patient risk. However, delivery of gait modification has mainly been limited to expensive and inaccessible laboratory settings. Recent technological advances using sensors worn on the body (wearable sensors) have become a realistic option to monitor walking in natural settings and for longer durations, something not previously possible in a lab. This is important to understand how people walk in the real world, and whether or not treatments are effective and feasible outside of controlled laboratory settings. My research will explore gait modification for knee OA out in the community, utilizing the Smart Shoe. The Smart Shoe is a sensorized athletic shoe that measures foot rotation. First, participants will wear the shoes for 4 weeks to assess normal walking patterns outside the lab. Participants will also take part in training sessions to modify their foot rotation, providing insight into how people learn new movement patterns in real-world conditions. Finally, participants will undergo a 3-month gait modification program using instant feedback from the sensors. This study will provide the first analysis of gait modification for knee OA in real-world settings. Transferring walking analysis and treatment outside of the laboratory will significantly reduce delivery costs, while improving the accessibility to those affected. Additionally, gait modification using wearable sensors paired with a smart device will improve treatment outcomes and patient quality of life, ultimately reducing the economic burden of this disease.