Taking cutting-edge research to the public could change the face of modern health-care.

The Running Injury Clinic opened new location in downtown Calgary on April 12, introducing a revolutionary approach to treating injured runners.

The Running Injury Clinic has created a partnership with The Downtown Sports Clinics, (TD Square, 300, 304-8th Avenue S.W.) that the director of the clinic Reed Ferber, PhD, says, "introduces a breakthrough approach to health innovation by putting a university research lab directly into a public clinic."

Ferber's revolutionary approach to running injury assessment is based on 3-D biomechanical analysis. Using state-of-the-art technology and scientific assessment tools, the clinic analyzes a runner's gait, then measures their strength and flexibility to discover the biomechanical root cause of a running injury.

Ferber's peer-reviewed research shows that 90 per cent of the clinic's patients are pain-free four to six weeks following treatment.

Beginning April 12, The Downtown Sports Clinics will have this state-of-the art technology and a fully trained member of the Running Injury Clinic available for all patients. The clinic will offer a full clinical gait analysis, and an important new service, unique to the The Downtown Sports Clinics - biomechanical analysis - that Ferber describes as a completely new approach to injury treatment.

"The biomechanical analysis takes decades of biomechanics research from the university lab, and puts in a clinical setting," says Ferber. "We will conduct a full biomechanical analysis and provide a report to a patient's physiotherapist with a detailed scientific and accurate assessment of the patient's gait mechanics. This report, combined with the physiotherapist's clinical expertise, will facilitate a much more accurate diagnosis of the problem than is currently available."

Calgary's Running Injury Clinic, and now The Downtown Sports Clinics, are the only locations in the world where a member of the public can receive a 3-D gait analysis using a motion-capture system and diagnostic tools developed during years of research and successful treatment.

The Running Injury Clinic has plans to open satellite clinics in locations across Canada and the United States in the coming years.