PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR
On Pace for Improving Mobility Researcher studies biomechanics among individuals with limb loss, leveraging motion capture, surface electromyography, and musculoskeletal modeling
O&P Almanac introduces individuals who have undertaken O&Pfocused research projects. Here, you will get to know colleagues and healthcare professionals who have carried out studies and gathered quantitative and/or qualitative data related to orthotics and prosthetics, and find out what it takes to become an O&P researcher.
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MARCH 2021 | O&P ALMANAC
hip joint loading, which may have implications for joint degeneration over time.” Silverman is excited about the potential of this project to increase the availability of running-specific prostheses to those who want them. She notes that for some individuals with amputation who may want to start running recreationally, it can be financially challenging to invest in a running-specific prosthesis if it is not covered by health insurance—so some choose to run with their daily walking prosthesis instead. But “the scientific results … suggest that using a running-specific prosthesis can reduce muscular compensations and hip joint loading, and thus may promote higher activity levels, comfort, and joint health for the prosthesis user.”
Researcher and Educator
“I love applying engineering approaches to solve problems in health,” Silverman says. She harnesses her excitement in her dual roles as both a researcher and an educator at the Colorado School of Mines. “On the research side, I investigate questions related to improving longterm mobility in impaired and at-risk populations. These questions apply to
PHOTO: Anne Silverman, PhD
PhD, greatest accomplishments is working as part of interdisciplinary teams on research projects aimed at helping people with limb loss improve their mobility. For example, “we have recently completed a study that evaluated running biomechanics when using running-specific prostheses compared to daily-use prostheses in people who have unilateral transtibial amputations,” says Silverman, the Rowlinson associate professor of mechanical engineering at the Colorado School of Mines. She and former graduate student and lead author Lauren Henzlik, PhD, collaborated with Brian Baum, PhD, and Erika Nelson-Wong, PhD, at Regis University
on this project, which was funded by the Department of Defense. As part of the study, research participants ran at various speeds wearing their own daily-use prostheses as well as their own running-specific prostheses. The researchers collected participants’ running kinematics, ground-reaction forces, and electromyographic signals. “We also developed biomechanical models of the participants and simulations of their running motion to evaluate internal hip joint contact loads,” she explains. Silverman and the team concluded that people with unilateral transtibial amputations increase the mechanical work output from the hip extensors to compensate for their missing biological ankle muscles, but this compensation is reduced with a running-specific prosthesis because the device stores and returns more energy than the daily-use prosthesis. “We have found that as speed increases, prosthesis users increase their compensatory hip work to meet this demand,” she explains. “We also found that at a single speed, the use of a running-specific prosthesis reduces muscle activity compared to daily-use prostheses. With our musculoskeletal modeling approach, we found that use of a running-specific prosthesis reduces