Laboratory:  The SteadmanHawkins Sports Medicine Foundation’s Biomechanics Research Laboratory comprises 2080 square feet and is located in the lower level of the Vail Valley Medical Center.  Approximately one-third of the Biomechanics Research Laboratory is office space.  All staff members have their own desktop computers with access to a computer network, data storage devices, and data backup systems.  The laboratory maintains a fully operational, state-of-the art motion analysis laboratory, a wet (cadaver dissection/bioskills) laboratory, and computer modeling suites. The BRL is networked to the Vail Valley Medical Center’s radiology suites for transfer of MRI data directly to Biomechanic’s workstations.

Computers/software:  The Biomechanics Research Laboratory has six desktop computers (PII or greater), three high-end PC-based modeling workstations, two UNIX Indigo systems, two G4 MAC platforms.  Students, staff and researchers have a wide range of scientific and programming software available to them such as Fortran, C/C++, ProE/ProMechanica; SD/FAST; Mimics; MatLab, SPSS 12.0)

Motion Analysis:  The Biomechanics Research Laboratory currently has four motion measurement systems: 

• A 7 camera (60 – 240 Hz) Motion Analysis System with Kintrak 6.0 processing software
• A 2 camera (120 Hz) PEAK Motus System,
• A two-camera Kodak (10,000 Hz) 16 mm LoCam System. 
• Two EMG units: an 8-channel hard-wired Delsys System and a 16 channel telemetry Delsys system; both capable of indwelling and/or surface electrodes,
• Cybex isokinetic dynamometer,
• A GaitWay instrumented treadmill housing two Kistler force plates,
• A Kistler stand-alone force plate mounted in a 12 meter runway
• High speed, bi-plane fluoroscopy system – this system employs 60-2000 Hz cameras to caput bone motions; custom software reconstructs the images and synthesizes 3D kinetics from the bi-plane image sequences.

(above) Bi-plane fluoroscopy set-up & software bone pose reconstruction

Other:  Support personnel are available to aid in data analysis and presentation of results, including a statistical consultant and a medical manuscript editor. The Visual Services department of SHSMF also houses a non-linear Avid editing suite for VHS/DVD video production and animation.  We employ on an as need basis a Medical Editor and a statistical consultant (Drs. Min Kocher, MD, MPH and David Karazowski, PhD, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Mass.)

Biomechanics Internship Program: We maintain a Biomechanics Internship program were students receiving college credit may come and observe and participate in research endeavors for designated periods during the calendar year. We receive about 100-150 applicants per year. On average we take about 5 interns per year, and payment ranges from a graduate student stipend to volunteer basis depending on the availability of funds. See Internship at Biomechanics homepage for more information and application procedures.