The Development and Rehabilitation Division at the Janeway is the only program of its kind for children throughout Newfoundland and Labrador. It provides service to children and adolescents with physical, developmental and learning disabilities.
Services through this Division at the Janeway include day patient, outpatient and other specialized clinics. Furthermore, our Development and Rehabilitation Team provide home visits, child care centre visits and school therapy services for children throughout the community who suffer from physical disabilities.
One impressive offering is the Motion Analysis Centre, the only motion capture centre east of Montreal whose primary focus is on clinical application. The team uses a high-tech motion capture system to analyze a child’s gait as part of ongoing physiotherapy or orthopaedic treatment. The system provides objective data and information which can be invaluable in helping to understand gait patterns, assist or inform decision-making for treatment, provide comparative pre-post intervention data, or assist with determining effectiveness of various therapies.
Utilizing computer-controlled infrared cameras, the motion analysis technology captures and records how a child walks, their “gait”. When a patient visits the lab for testing, reflective markers are placed on their legs. These markers are then tracked by the cameras and provide computer-based graphics and animation to show how the legs move while the patient walks across specially designed force plates installed into the lab floor. Another test includes the placement of special sensors above the muscles of the legs. These sensors measure leg muscle activity and show if these muscles are working properly.
To assist in increasing the information received by the computers, two additional force plates were installed in the lab floor, not only providing a longer walking space for patient tests, but also, at times, cutting down on the time it takes to complete the test and obtain the necessary information. The Janeway medical team use the information collected to diagnose conditions and plan follow-up treatments.