In the UMCG Center for Rehabilitation, adults and children with physical disabilities due to an accident, illness, or congenital condition undergo rehabilitation with the goal of living as independently as possible. Patients come to the center with complex medical, physical, psychosocial, and occupational needs. Over 650 colleagues work with the latest scientific knowledge and state-of-the-art equipment to provide the best possible care. We also meet high ambitions in the areas of research and education. We do this at two locations: UMCG Groningen and Beatrixoord location in Haren. Patient satisfaction, quality, professionalism, and collegiality are highly valued by us.

The PhD project:
The project aims to develop a clinical decision-making support system allowing more personalized and more effective prescriptions of ankle foot orthoses (AFOs) and orthopedic footwear for patients with gait impairments. The tool will combine fundamental biomechanics with smart computer algorithms and a computational modeling prototype.

As a PhD student, you will design, manage, execute and report on four main projects:
- Performing a comprehensive literature review of existing evidence on the biomechanical effects of shoe outsole and AFO parameters on gait biomechanics in patients and healthy control subjects.
- Development of biomechanical decision tree algorithms for AFO-shoe combinations.
- Planning and executing clinical validation studies in healthy young adults and patients with gait impairments.
- Development and validation of computational modelling workflows (e.g. in OpenSim) for AFO-shoe combinations.

- A completed master's degree in a relevant field, such as human movement sciences, biomedical engineering, biomechanical engineering or technical medicine.
- Experience with biomechanics and 3D motion capture.
- Experience in computational biomechanics or musculoskeletal modelling (e.g. OpenSim) or strong desire to become proficient in these fields.
- Affinity with clinical applications and gait rehabilitation.
- Good programming skills in Matlab or Python.
- Strong analytical skills.
- Strong communication skills, both orally and written.
- Ability to work in a multidisciplinary team.
- Experience with writing scientific texts in English.

It concerns a 100% (36 hours) employment contract for the temporary duration of the promotion project (48 months) with an interim evaluation (go/no go) after 12 months. The salary is up to € 3.677,- gross per month for a full-time employment contract. In addition, the UMCG offers 8% holiday allowance and 8.3% year-en. The conditions of employment comply with the Collective Labour Agreement for Medical Centres (CAO-UMC).

Revalidatiegeneeskunde

You are appointed as a PhD candidate at the Department of Rehabilitation Medicine of the UMCG. You will be part of an enthusiastic, multidisciplinary research group. You will join the Research School Health in Context and follow the PhD training program of the Graduate School Medical Sciences of the UMCG.