Alumna’s Cornell Fellowship leads to publication

Abby Schultz ’11, a former Cornell Fellow at the Children’s Hospital in Aurora, Colo., was recently published as a contributor to the scholarly article,  “Radiographic parameters improve lower extremity prosthetic alignment,”  in the peer reviewed  Journal of Children’s Orthopaedics.

As the Mansfield Foundation Fellow in Clinical Gait Analysis, Schultz shadowed and assisted with research for Dr. Travis Heare, a pediatric orthopaedic oncologist, and Patrick Carry ’07, a research assistant. Schultz researched how to find better fits for prosthetic legs for children. Because poorly fitted prosthetic replacements can cause wear on joints and issues with gait, the fit of a prosthetic leg can greatly affect quality of life.  Heare’s research team found that all variables of prosthetic fit were significantly improved with the use of radiographic parameters, which are  measurements of the limb and prosthesis taken from x-rays.

The Journal of Children’s Orthopaedics is an electronic publication and the official  journal of the European Paediatric Orthopaedic Society. The journal’s aim is to publish high quality, peer-reviewed articles that focus on clinical practice, diagnosis and treatment of disorders unique to pediatric orthopaedics.