Bern Mobility Centre

The Bern Mobility Centre examines the functionality in everyday situations of older people or patients following surgical procedures. The focus is on the analysis of physical and cognitive abilities.

Together with the Centre for Orthogeriatrics, we combine expertise in the fields of geriatric medicine, orthogeriatrics and physiotherapy with one goal: improving patients’ physical performance in their day-to-day lives.

The synergies gained benefit both outpatient and inpatient guests and ensure holistic care throughout the entire treatment process.

Services at the Bern Mobility Centre

We will be happy to support you as a partner for your research projects or for services in a processing chain. Our services include:

Analysis of physical performance in everyday situations
Recording of cognitive limitations
Specific exercise analyses in different dimensions (kinematics, kinetics, neuromuscular control, strength, etc.)
Research cooperation (in research projects, research internships, qualification works)
Service cooperation (patient monitoring post-op/during rehab).

How we work

The following research groups of the Health Professions department work at the Bern Mobility Centre: 

Neuromuscular Control
Foot Biomechanics and Technology

Methods

Both qualitative and quantitative research methods are used. As a rule, any methods used at the Bern Movement Lab for determining the physical performance are also available at the Bern Mobility Centre.

With our infrastructure, we can evaluate motor skills and everyday activities of patients and older people.

Kinematics

Kinematics refers to how bodies move in space and includes the variables of position, speed and acceleration. Kinematics is used, for example, when an angle in the knee joint needs to be looked at or if a person’s walking speed or gait length has to be analysed. For this purpose, we have the following measurement systems:

3D motion capture system (Vicon Motion Systems, Ltd., Oxford, UK) with 16 cameras (8× Bonita3, 2× Bonita10, 6× Vero v1.3)
3D electromagnetic tracking (3D Guidance trackSTAR™, NDI, Waterloo, Ontario, CA)
4× USB 3.0 Basel ace industrial camera, 1.3 MP, 203 fps, monochrome (Basler AG, Ahrensburg, DE)
Digital video linked to Vicon System, 2× FLIR Blackfly S, 2.3 MP, 163 fps, colour (Teledyne FLIR LLC)
WaveTrack Inertial System (IMU) with 7 sensor units from cometa (Cometa Systems, Bareggio MI, IT)
GAITRite walkway to determine spatiotemporal gait parameters (CIR Systems, Inc., Franklin, USA)

Kinetics

Kinetics describes what causes bodies to move and thus the forces that affect them. This includes, for example, muscle strength and the torque that they generate in joints, as well as the so-called ground reaction forces that arise during jumps and provide important information about components of strength capabilities.

2× force plates fixed to Vicon system for 3D force measurement, 2× AMTI OR6 (AMTI, Inc., Watertown, USA)
6× mobile 3D force plates from Kistler, type 9286 for biomechanics (Kistler Instrumente AG, Winterthur, CH)
Diverse single-axis force sensors for compression and tension
Treadmill ergometer FDM-T with integrated plantar pressure measurement (zebris Medical GmbH, Isny, DE)
Instrumented treadmills with 1D force sensors for measurement of ground reaction forces and for step detection
Measurement plates for plantar pressure from zebris (zebris Medical GmbH, Isny, DE) and rsscan (RSscan Lab Ltd., Ipswich, UK)
Staircase with integrated 3D measurement of ground reactions (via Kistler strength force plate)
Leg press with 3D force measurement (via Kistler force plate)
Kistler Quatro Jump force plate (Kistler Instrumente AG, Winterthur, CH)
Mobile ground reaction force measurement moticon OpenGo (Moticon ReGo AG, Munich, DE)

Neuromuscular control

Neuromuscular control deals with muscle activity and thus the cause of the actual strength development in the human locomotor system. Neuromuscular control, for example, explores the degree and timing of muscular activation and utilises electromyography as a measurement method.

16-channel wireless EMG Cometa WavePlus with 8x MiniWave and 8x Pico sensors incl. analogue option, in conjunction with Vicon system (Cometa Systems, Bareggio MI, IT)
8-channel wireless EMG Myon 320
2× 16-channel & 1× 8-channel semi-wired-EMG (Noraxon, Scottsdale, USA)
Multi-channel EMG system EMG-USB2+ with various linear and matrix electrodes for measuring with 8 to 64 channels (OT Bioelettronica, Turin, IT)

Continuous scale physical performance test (CS-PFP-10)

We are a certified test centre for the CS-PFP 10 Test (Continuous Scale of Physical Functional Performance), which can be performed in accordance with the same standards as the Basel Mobility Centre at the Felix-Platter Hospital. Physical function is tested in ten daily situations (e.g. carrying shopping bags, 6-minute walking test, emptying washing machine, etc.). Taking measures at intervals provides information about changes in day-to-day physical performance that can be attributed to, for example, a therapy.

Plantar pressure distribution

Plantar pressure distribution is a kinetic measurement method that examines the load situation between the foot and the ground. This can, for example, be used in matters where there are partial load restrictions to be observed following surgical interventions on the lower extremity. In the Bern Mobility Centre, “OpenGo” sensor inserts (Insole3, OpenGo, Moticon ReGo AG, Munich, DE) are used. These can be worn in normal footwear.