Design of Optimal Treatments for Neuromusculoskeletal Disorders using Patient-Specific Multibody Dynamic Models

Disorders of the human neuromusculoskeletal system such as osteoarthritis, stroke, cerebral palsy, and paraplegia significantly affect mobility and result in a decreased quality of life. Surgical and rehabilitation treatment planning for these disorders is based primarily on static anatomic measurements and dynamic functional measurements filtered through clinical experience. While this subjective treatment planning approach works well in many cases, it does not predict accurate functional outcome in many others. This paper presents a vision for how patient-specific multibody dynamic models can serve as the foundation for an objective treatment planning approach that identifies optimal treatments and treatment parameters on an individual patient basis. First, a computational paradigm is presented for constructing patient-specific multibody dynamic models. This paradigm involves a combination of patient-specific skeletal models, muscle-tendon models, neural control models, and articular contact models, with the complexity of the complete model being dictated by the requirements of the clinical problem being addressed. Next, three clinical applications are presented to illustrate how such models could be used in the treatment design process. One application involves the design of patient-specific gait modification strategies for knee osteoarthritis rehabilitation, a second involves the selection of optimal patient-specific surgical parameters for a particular knee osteoarthritis surgery, and the third involves the design of patient-specific muscle stimulation patterns for stroke rehabilitation. The paper concludes by discussing important challenges that need to be overcome to turn this vision into reality.