Please note: this internship is only available to current undergraduate students in Lancaster University Medical School.
This internship is offered as part of an exciting pilot of research opportunities for Medical School undergraduate students (MBChB and SaES). Each internship will be supervised by an academic member of staff. These opportunities are designed to give students experience of contributing to university research. These internships would be ideal for students considering postgraduate study, intercalated degrees or specialised foundation programmes.
Project Summary:
Stroke survivors experience an array of foot health problems which limit their ability to walk and complete activities of daily living. However, current research lacks understanding surrounding the types of foot health problems, how they are treated in rehabilitation, and how they limit walking ability and quality of life.
This research will be completed as part of a PhD project will take a qualitative and quantitative approach to 1) understand what foot health problems stroke survivors experience and how they impact daily lives, 2) understand healthcare professionals perceptions of how to assess and treat foot health problems after a stroke and 3) understand how changes in biomechanical, neuromuscular, sensory and vascular function contribute to foot health problems that impair gait in stroke survivors.
In doing so a range of questionnaires and focus groups will be used to understand stroke survivors and healthcare professionals’ perspectives on foot health problems after a stroke. Quantitative data collection will be completed by stroke survivors and age-matched control participants who will attend Lancaster University to investigate if changes to biomechanical, neuromuscular, vascular and sensory function after a stroke contribute to foot health problems and gait impairments. In doing so, participants will complete tasks such as marker-less 3D motion capture to assess gait, use of surface electromyography to measure neuromuscular function, ankle brachial pressure index to measure blood vessel health, 10-gram monofilament to measure sensory function in the foot and the Fugl-Meyer which is a clinical test to assess motor impairment. By completing this research, we hope to create research informed guidelines which can be used within stroke rehabilitation to ensure foot health problems are assessed and treated, which in turn will reduce gait dysfunction post stroke and improve overall quality of life.
Rehabilitation imposes a substantial cost to the Ministry of Defence (MOD), following overuse injuries sustained during training and operations. Optimising recovery and return to combat readiness is essential to maintain deployment preparedness, reducing the strain on services and cost. Understanding the relationship between abnormal gait and injury is critical for the diagnosis of overuse injuries. Although 3D motion capture (3DMOCAP) is the recognised gold standard of gait assessment, its logistical demands, time burden, and limited accessibility restrict widespread use. AI-driven mobile applications offer a scalable alternative, providing rapid, low-cost, user-friendly assessment.
The research will be completed to build on my PhD following the proposed studies:
1. Systematic Review: Comparison of smartphone-based gait assessment and EMG sensor applications against 3DMOCAP.
2. Pilot Study: Assessing the validity and reliability of smartphone-based applications in gait trials, informed by the results of the systematic review.
3. Adapting the pose-estimation model based on the findings of Study 1 and 2. For use in MOD clinical settings.
4. Assess real time use of the model in a military population, healthy, progressing to injured.
The aim of this research is to streamline AI smartphone-based gait analysis for use in military populations, diagnosing abnormalities in gait and informing return to duty readiness following rehabilitation of overuse injuries.
Preferred Start Date: 2nd November 2026
Expected End Date: 31st August 2027
Working Pattern: 5 Hours per week
Location: On the Lancaster University Campus and Remote