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GAMA - A PIONEER IN ADULT NEUROLOGY
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 Kim
Jones |
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There is a sense of achievement within the team of GAMA - the Gait and Movement Analysis Service - now in operation at the Royal Leamington Spa Rehabilitation Hospital (RLSRH) in Warwickshire, England. The establishment of this service is founded on a unique story - a story of determination and teamwork. It all began just over two years ago with three adjoining
clinic rooms in the hospital, a generous donation by a grateful patient’s
family and the vision and enthusiasm of Rehabilitation Consultant Mr
Derar Badwan and Business Manager Linda Frost. These foundations are
supported by willingness from the South Warwickshire Combined Care Trust
to finance, facilitate and encourage a unique venture
at RLSRH. The Trust accepted a proposal by Dr Malcolm Forward, Senior
Bioengineer at the Orthotic Research and Locomotor Assessment Unit,
Robert Jones & Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic Hospital Oswestry who
seconded Kim Jones, formerly a lecturer and research physiotherapist,
at Keele University, to provide a two-year development programme for
a new Gait and Movement Analysis Service on the Leamington site. Malcolm
explained, “Whilst I could see roughly what was required in terms
of staff, laboratory and infrastructure development, I knew that there
was only one person who had the knowledge, organisational, teaching
and motivation skills to make the project work in the time scale proposed.
It had to be Kim!” Kim, an experienced physiotherapy lecturer and biomechanics
researcher, had been previously seconded to run gait courses at Oswestry.
Whilst she provided the project planning and led the teaching, Malcolm
contributed the bioengineering support and service development experience.
Together they were well placed to establish the facilities needed to
train and motivate the team who would make the service operational.
For two years they have travelled each week from Oswestry to Leamington
to spend two days of the week developing the programme and training
the team. This autumn marks the culmination of their work and
the beginning of a new era for the fully trained team now ready and
able to operate the GAMA Service. The laboratory is up and running.
The three adjoining rooms are now one with a carefully levelled floor
replacing the uneven original. The lab is well equipped with the Vicon
370 gait analysis system, AMTI Force Platform, JVC 3-camera video and
PEDAR foot pressure measurement. Funds are currently being raised for
the latest in EMG equipment. The multidisciplinary team is confident
and NHS and private patients, referred to the service by GPs and Consultants
in the region, are attending. The task begun nearly three years ago
by Kim and Malcolm is completed and a new beginning has been initiated. The hard work and achievements of all concerned have
resulted in an Official Opening of the GAMA laboratory by Her Royal
Highness, The Princess Royal, which will take place in December of this
year. The Consultant heading the team is Mr Derar Badwan,
Rehabilitation Medicine Consultant at RLSRH. The lab is staffed by three
physiotherapists, two podiatrists and an occupational therapist. The
inclusion of an occupational therapist is thought to be unique in the
UK. In addition to expertise in dealing with full gait
and movement assessments for a wide range of disease and trauma studies
(including stroke, multiple sclerosis, head and spinal cord injuries,
diabetes, mechanical malalignments and paediatric pathologies), each
member of this multidisciplinary team has a special co-ordinating responsibility
within the group. Kate Ellis is Research Co-ordinator and Susanne Hayward
Technical Co-ordinator, while Jonathan Small takes responsibility for
Marketing, Michelle Kudhail for Training, and Anne Murray and Heather
Alford are the Service Co-ordinators.
At the start Kim, as the architect of the development
programme, had no fixed plan of delivery but had decided that the two-year
programme should be taught from the outset at master’s degree level.
To begin to plan the course, Kim and Malcolm sat down with the team
on the first day in the rather bare rooms that were later to become
a state of the art laboratory, to gain an understanding of the hopes
and aspirations of each member of the team.
Kim says: “It’s hard to believe what we have all achieved
since that first day. I remember making a few notes and then later sitting in the
hotel planning the outline of the course with Malcolm, so that we could
take it back to the team for discussion the following morning. Looking
back, very few changes were in fact made to the original structure of
the programme and to think that the laboratory and team are now up and
running to a high standard is exceptionally gratifying. It is wonderful
news that Princess Anne has agreed to open the laboratory. I feel confident
that she won’t be disappointed”. The GAMA Service with its unique logo taken from
a stick figure decoration on the team’s first birthday cake baked
by one of the staff is thought to be the first to offer facilities in
clinical neurology in the UK. Already studies are beginning in diabetes,
rheumatology, and various orthopaedic and paediatric areas as well as
in neurology. From the patient studies, research projects are already
in hand, the first of these being published in this issue of THE STANDARD.
GAMA is in operation; a dream has been realised,
and the dedication of Kim Jones and Malcolm Forward, with the backing
of the Trust coupled to the energies and enthusiasm of this now expert
multidisciplinary team, has paid off as a successful and unique approach
to gait lab development. Kim
and Malcolm say that the biggest satisfaction comes from seeing the
application of movement analysis to a new patient group. “These
patients should now benefit from biomechanical analysis in treatment
planning. The field of neurology will benefit from quantitative measurement
of treatment outcome. The GAMA Laboratory at the Royal Leamington Spa
Rehabilitation Hospital must be viewed as a pioneer in the field of
adult neurology.” |
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