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Lab Resources

Institution

Hmp Unthsc UNTHSC is one of the nation’s premier graduate academic medical centers with five schools that specialize in patient-centered education, research, and health care on a 33-acre campus in Fort Worth, TX. The Texas College of Osteopathic Medicine recently ranked 36th among all medical schools across the country for primary care, up from being in the top 50 schools for primary care for the last 12 consecutive years, and is a top 20 medical school for Hispanics. UNTHSC’s over $300 million budget supported 1510 faculty and staff in 1.476 million square feet of state-of-the-art facilities and sponsored research expenditures totaled $45.4million. Externally sponsored awards have grown 64% in five years from $32.8 million in 2013 to over $84 million in 2022. The campus includes a 140,000-square-foot Clinical Care Building, a 160,000-square-foot Center for Bio-Health, and a 120,000-square-foot Medical Education building. An additional 170,000 square foot Interdisciplinary Research and Education Building which was recently completed houses both teaching and research space. UNTHSC’s mission is to create solutions for a healthier community which is directly in line with the research proposed.

Clinic

Hmp Clinic UNTHSC houses the UNT Health System (160,000 sq. ft), the clinical component of the Health Science Center, which sees patients across the region with physicians and health providers representing many medical specialties to provide point-of-care evaluation and improve patient quality of life. As part of daily clinical practice, medical students and residents are regularly trained in these clinics.

Laboratory

  • The Human Movement Performance (HMP) Lab has over a decade of experience working with human subjects to capture gait mechanics in multiple clinical populations including, but not limited to, Parkinson’s disease, individuals with lower limb loss, professional and pre-professional ballet dancers, children with autism, individuals with deficiencies due to age, and post-stroke. Since its inception in 2007, the vision of the lab has been to generate new knowledge and technology and promote its effective use in the rehabilitation process.
  • Motion Capture System
    • The lab is fitted with 18 motion capture cameras (Motion Analysis Corp., Santa Rosa, CA) that are precisely oriented to ensure maximum coverage of the testing volume area. This system tracks the 3-dimensional movement of retro-reflective markers placed on the body. The positioning of these markers provides precise information on joint/segment motion in order to calculate temporal-spatial (e.g. step length) and kinematic (e.g. joint angles) measures.
  • Individual Space
    • Dr. Patterson and staff are allocated office space at HSC, a desktop computer, and a portable laptop fitted with all the necessary software to conduct research. Offices for full-time staff and shared space for students are located next to each other on the same floor to foster an intellectual environment. There is access to external hard drives and secure network drives for multiple layer data back-ups to mitigate data loss or corruption that is instituted across all UNT System campuses.

Technology

  • Motion Capture System
    • 18 infrared cameras, 12 Eagle-4 &  6 Kestrel (Motion Analysis Corp, Santa Rosa, CA, USA)
    • Capable of real-time kinetics, dynamic force calculations and integrated with extremity calculation software
    • Integrated with a Delsys electromyographic system for surface or fine wire electrodes
  • Transcutaneous Nerve and Muscle Stimulator
    • Digitimer High Voltage Stimulator model DS7A ( Digitimer, Hertfordshire, UK)
    • Provides constant pulses of 50 μs -2 ms duration for transcutaneous stimulation of nerve and muscle tissue
      • Continuously variable output amperage/voltage over the range of 0-100 milliamps and 0-400 volts, respectively
        • A specially designed isolated output stage maintains a square (current) pulse shape while minimizing stimulus artifacts
  • Balance Testing Systems
    • BioSway model 950330, (BioDex Corp., Shirley, NY, USA)
      • A lightweight, instrumented force platform (strain-gauge) for collecting balance data at a recording frequency of 20 Hz
    • The Essential, (Bertec Corp., Columbus, OH, USA)
      • A modern, portable, instrumented force platform (piezoelectric) for collecting balance data at a recording frequency of  1 kHz
  • Wearable Sensor Systems
    • STT-IWS IMU, (STT Systems Corp., San Sebastian, San Sebastian, Spain)
      • A mobile, interconnected system of wireless (WiFi) Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) for gait analysis
        • 14 IMUs tracking gait trajectories, segment angles, and other parameters between 50 and 400Hz
        • The finest drift correction, robust electronic calibration, <0.5° static accuracy (RMS), <2° dynamic accuracy (RMS)
    • Loadsol, (Novel Electronics Inc., St. Paul, Minneapolis, USA)
      • A mobile, in-shoe force measurement system tracking the plantar force inside the shoe in both standing and dynamic movements
      • Utilizes a flexible, flat sensor that covers the entire plantar surface of the foot, records at 80-200Hz, and is BlueTooth LE enabled

This page was last modified on August 31, 2022