How Does Dr. Logan Use Force Plates in Clinic?

Contrary to what some might think, force plates do not replace the rehabilitation framework that practitioners are taught and use day-to-day.

While there are many nuances, the most common reference points a sports medicine surgeon may use for decision-making in injury rehabilitation (other than physiological tissue healing time frames) – each of which can be measured by force plates – are:

• Normative data – benchmarking the injured patient against data for their demographic (age, sex, sport, industry) to understand their current deficits, then using that normative data as a goal to work towards. For example, ForceDecks features Norms – integrated normative data – in its reports to provide this context immediately after an assessment.  

• Pre-injury data – if pre-injury data is available (it often is not in clinical settings), aiming to restore strength, movement, or other functions to their pre-injury levels.

• Limb Symmetry Index (LSI) – in the absence of normative or pre-injury data, practitioners may identify the magnitude of asymmetry between limbs as a reference point, then gear rehabilitation towards restoring the injured limb to within an acceptable percentage of the healthy limb.

Beyond these decision-making reference points, force plates enable a range of other valuable use cases throughout the rehabilitation journey.

• Discover new metrics and data that are not possible to measure without force plates. You may uncover deficiencies or strengths you did not expect – allowing for tailored rehabilitation.

• Monitor progress during rehab with accuracy and make decisions with confidence.

• Reference normative data to provide more context and meaning to results, both for you and for your patient.

• Biofeedback enhances the patient’s experience through gamified data visualization and real-time results.

• Enhance communication with clear objective data that can be easily explained to your patient and tracked over time.

• Automatic logging of testing data, removing the need for pen and paper, spreadsheets, or manual entry.

• Automatic reporting makes it simple to communicate results to stakeholders.

Common examples of force plates in rehabilitation settings include:

• Pre-operative physical assessments.

• Post-operative recovery.

• Muscle and tendon joint injury.

• Acute and degenerative joint pathologies.

Author

Dr. Catherine Logan, MD, MBA Catherine Logan, MD, MBA, MSPT, is a sports medicine orthopaedic surgeon specializing in complex knee and shoulder surgery at Colorado Sports Medicine and Orthopaedics (COSMO) in Denver, Colorado. As a former physical therapist & trainer, Dr. Logan provides a distinct expertise in sports injury, prevention, and surgical management.