Observational Gait Analysis: A Visual Guide

Janet M. Adams, PT, MS, DPT earned her bachelor’s degree in Physical Therapy from the University of Illinois in Chicago in 1976. She began her physical therapy career specializing in pediatrics at Spalding School for Handicapped Children (Chicago, Illinois) until 1978 when she moved to Phoenix, Arizona where she was the Director of the Physical Therapy Department at Gompers Rehabilitation Center. In 1980, following her move to Los Angeles, California she began her master of science degree at University of Southern California (USC) and began working with Dr. Jacquelin Perry at the Pathokinesiology Service at Rancho Los Amigos National Rehabilitation Center (Downey, California). Dr. Adams earned both her master of science and doctorate of Physical Therapy at USC. In 1992, Dr. Adams began her career in academia at California State University, Northridge (CSUN) where she has taught for over 25 years. Currently, Dr. Adams is a full-time tenured professor in the Department of Physical Therapy at CSUN and a Research Associate at California State University, Long Beach (CSULB) where she works on doctoral research projects with Dr. Cerny. Dr. Adams has taught classes in applied biomechanics, normal and pathological gait analysis, prosthetics and orthotics, applied anatomy, evidence based practice, and research design and methodology. She supervises doctoral research students at both CSUN and CSULB. In addition to numerous publications, Dr. Adams has authored 2 chapters with Dr. Perry in 2 editions of Verne Inman’s text Human Walking.
 
Kay Cerny, PT, PhD earned her bachelor’s degree from Miami University (Oxford, Ohio). She received her certificate in Physical Therapy from the D.T Watson School of Physiatrics (Leetsdale, Pennsylvania) in 1963. Dr. Cerny began her clinical practice at Rancho Los Amigos National Rehabilitation Center, and was one of the original physical therapists who worked with Dr. Jacquelin Perry on developing observational gait analysis (OGA) for clinicians and helped author the first edition of the Rancho OGA manual. She was one of the traveling Rancho therapists who introduced the then-new approach of clinical gait analysis to physical therapists across the country and Canada in the early 1970s.

At Rancho, Dr. Cerny planned, wrote, and executed teaching materials for physical therapy staff, interns, and aides. Her part-time teaching included kinesiology for orthotic-prosthetic students at Cerritos College (Cerritos, California). In 1969, she took a 1-year leave from Rancho to teach physical therapy students full time at the University of Texas, Medical Branch in Galveston. Returning to Rancho, she soon transferred to the Pathokinesiology Service to evaluate patients with Dr. Perry. Dr. Cerny earned her master of science in Physical Therapy from the University of Southern California (Los Angeles) studying walking and wheelchair energetics in people with paraplegia secondary to spinal cord injury.

In 1978, Dr. Cerny accepted a full-time position teaching physical therapy at California State University, Northridge. Four years later, after earning tenure, she accepted a tenure-track position at California State University, Long Beach (CSULB), where she earned tenure and advanced to full professor. At CSULB, she taught applied biomechanics, including normal and pathological gait, and supported student research projects that have resulted in subsequent peer-reviewed publications. In 2004, she accepted the Department Chair position, which she held from 2004 until 2014. Under her chairmanship, the Department of Physical Therapy advanced to the DPT program, began an out patient faculty practice, and was successfully reaccredited. She earned her PhD from the University of Southern California in 1987 where she studied the effect of simulated knee flexion contractures on gait. Dr. Cerny retired in 2015 to limit her teaching to supervising DPT student research and to assist in writing this text.