Vicon and the Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre Help CURE International Create Ethiopia’s First Gait Lab

Vicon Donated Cameras, Software and an Electromyographic Machine; CURE Ethiopia’s New Gait Lab is Among the First to Offer Surgical Remedies for Cerebral Palsy in the Region

OXFORD, UK
April 25, 2019

For more than 20 years, CURE International has helped bring medical treatment to children in developing nations where modern medical technology may not be readily available. In an effort to help the nonprofit combat specific issues plaguing children in Ethiopia – including large numbers of children with cerebral palsy – Vicon has donated a complete optical system to CURE’s Addis Ababa location, creating the first gait lab in the country and helping to bring a new level of healthcare to children in need.

 

Since opening its doors in 2008, CURE Ethiopia has become the premiere children’s orthopedic hospital in the region. Along with modern facilities and dedicated experts on staff, CURE hosts volunteers from around the world to teach classes and lend their medical expertise. For the last decade, members of the internationally renowned Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre (NOC), located in Oxford, England, have been among the most dedicated volunteers. NOC doctors, nurses and administrators have brought with them unmatched surgical and diagnostic abilities in the field of orthopedics, helping CURE to treat patients and identify how and where they can improve their services.

While orthopedic issues are as common in Ethiopia as they are anywhere, managing children with cerebral palsy is a particular challenge. Cerebral palsy is a debilitating movement disorder that often leaves sufferers unable to walk without assistance. There is no cure for cerebral palsy, but surgical remedies can help to significantly restore mobility. Planning for that surgery, however, demands precision equipment to identify joint contractures, torsional abnormalities and muscle weakness. That requires a gait lab fitted with motion capture cameras capable of recording the movements of a patient, and an electromyographic (EMG) system that can capture the electrical activity produced by skeletal muscles. That’s where Vicon came in.

 

After traveling to Addis Ababa and determining the impact these systems could have, the NOC’s Mr. Tim Theologis reached out to Vicon to discuss the possibility of creating a full gait lab for CURE Ethiopia, similar to the NOC’s Vicon-equipped gait lab in Oxford. Vicon quickly saw the difference the equipment could make, and soon donated a complete system – including 10 Vicon Bonita cameras and its Nexus software, along with an electromyographic system – to CURE International.

 

“On behalf of CURE Ethiopia Children’s Hospital, we are very grateful for Vicon’s generosity,” said CURE Ethiopia’s Dr. Rick Gardner. “This is already helping us to better understand how to help our patients with neuromuscular disorders through surgery and therapy. This faculty will be instrumental in helping many children live more independent lives.”

Founded in 1996 in Salt Lake, Michigan, CURE International opened its first hospital in 1998 in Kenya. It now operates nine hospitals around the world, along with specialty programs designed to help treat clubfoot and hydrocephalus in an additional 19 countries, making it one of the leading nonprofit medical service providers in the world. Its focus continues to be on helping children and teenagers in developing areas suffering from orthopedic and neurological conditions.

 

Since opening, CURE Ethiopia has become one of the preeminent pediatric orthopedic hospitals in the region, offering training in advanced orthopedic techniques. It maintains a dual focus on pediatric orthopedics and pediatric plastic reconstruction, including treatments for cleft lip, club foot and other limb deformities. A recent expansion to the hospital introduced new facilities for patients, including the gait lab, the first of its kind in Ethiopia. The hospital is staffed by several trained surgeons and continues to receive support from organizations like the NOC.

 

“The NOC continues to offer vital support to our work in Ethiopia,” said Dr. Gardner. “The ongoing collaboration with the NOC is having a wide-reaching impact in orthopedic surgical services in Ethiopia, through service expansion and by training the next generation of surgeons.

 

CURE Ethiopia’s gait lab opened its doors on March 4, 2019, and is now seeing patients.

ABOUT THE ORGANIZATIONS

ABOUT VICON

Academy Award®-winning Vicon is the world’s largest supplier of precision motion capture and tracking systems. It serves customers in, biomechanics, sports, clinical sciences arenas, CG animation, object-tracking, virtual and augmented realities, and engineering.

Vicon is a subsidiary of Oxford Metrics (LSE: OMG), the international software company servicing government, life sciences, entertainment, and engineering markets. Other holdings include Yotta, a provider of software and services for infrastructure asset management.

Among many others, Vicon global clients include:

LIfe Science: Loughborough University, Liverpool John Moores, Nuffield Orthopedic Centre, University of Brussels, Shriners Hospitals, Texas Back Institute, Northumbria University, Guy’s and St Thomas Hospital, Katholieke University Leuven, Amsterdam Medical Centre, and Humboldt Universitat zu, Berlin

Entertainment: Framestore, Audiomotion, The Imaginarium, Quantic Dream, Ninja Theory, Konami, Activision, Sony, Dreamworks, ILM, USC, EA, Capture Lab, CD Projekt, Digic Pictures, IO Interactive, Creative Assembly, Plarium Games, Mocap Lab, Seasun

VR: Artanim, VR Tech, Dreamscape VR, Canon, Samsung

ABOUT CURE

The children they serve have conditions like clubfoot, bowed legs, cleft lips, untreated burns, and hydrocephalus. Without treatment, they will have little hope for the future.

That’s why CURE exists. They’re a non-profit organization that operates charitable hospitals and programs in 26 countries worldwide where patients experience the life-changing message of God’s love for them, receiving surgical treatment regardless of gender, religion, or ethnicity.

Since their founding in 1996, CURE hospitals have performed more than 205,400 procedures, more than 123,500 children have been treated at CURE clubfoot partner clinics, and surgeons trained by CURE have performed more than 13,600 procedures to treat hydrocephalus and spina bifida.

Visit www.cure.org