The Cerebral Palsy Research Network (CPRN) chairman and founder, Paul Gross, visited the University of Washington’s new Amplify Movement and Performance (AMP) lab this past week. Gross joined in at a weekly AMP lab meeting with 15 engineering undergraduate students and post-doctoral students, two of three lab co-directors — Kat Steele, PhD. in mechanical engineering and Samuel Burden, PhD. in electrical engineering — and several clinicians from Seattle Children’s Rehabilitation Medicine and Physical Therapy.

Lab members test out new gait lab: Photo credit University of Washington

After a tour of the new research gait lab space, students and post-doctoral students did introductions and shared their research interests. Gross followed with a presentation of the founding and status of CPRN and the outcomes from its recent Research CP initiative. After, there was an engaged discussion about the opportunity in standardizing gait lab data for use with the CPRN registry, the value of the CPRN registry patient and intervention characteristics and the ability to link these with long-term patient reported outcomes. Some AMP lab members already collaborate with CPRN member site Gillette Specialty Healthcare for analyzing gait lab data. Seattle Children’s CPRN principal investigator, Kristie Bjornson, PhD. in Physical Therapy, provides a critical link between the AMP research lab and future collaboration with CPRN.