The purpose of the Network’s Working Groups is to facilitate an environment of collaboration and resource sharing among experts in specific areas of MSK health research across Canada.
They act as working committees and work closely with the Network’s Leadership Committee to identify key research questions, plan meetings and presentations at the Network Annual Meeting, and provide support to the Network’s Administrative Committee with various administrative tasks throughout the year.
Working Groups fall within one or more of the Network’s Research Arms:
| Training & Mentoring | Clinical Studies | Discovery |
| Early Career Investigators Committee Trainee Committee | MSK Rehab Core Outcome Measures Working Group Methods Centre Working Group (Clinical Trials Network) | Biomechanics Working Group (GaitNET) Open Access Software Application (OpenWear) |
Research Infrastructure:
GaitNET
GaitNET: Supported by the Canadian MSK Rehab Research Network, GaitNET is a self-assembled national consortium with expertise and infrastructure for sharing and processing movement analysis data. GaitNET has a particular focus on quantitative gait analysis (biomechanics and neuromuscular control) and its applications to MSK rehabilitation and osteoarthritis (OA). Since its inception in October 2017, GaitNET has focused on two initiatives: 1) national collaboration and strategic planning, and 2) establishing a national online platform for sharing and processing gait data.
Clinical Trials Network
The MSK Rehab Research Network is developing a platform for collecting clinical outcomes data and/or implementing clinical trials across multiple sites. Once complete, this infrastructure will be freely accessible to members to scale up research projects and increase capacity
OpenWear
Following a country-wide survey, MSK network members identified wearable technologies as one of their top 3 priorities. As a result, a working group on Wearable, Web & Mobile Technologies was started. The primary objective OpenWear will be to standardize data collection procedures across Canadian laboratories to create large, Canada-wide data sets of movement signals obtained using wearable sensors.
This will allow Canadian MSK researchers to inform the clinic and impact the quality of life of Canadians in three key areas: 1) assist clinical decision-making regarding disease progression and identification of evidence-based criteria for rehabilitation discharge and safe return to work/sports; 2) inform injury prevention specialists and create guidelines on risk factors/early indicators of injury; 3) obtain larger data sets to study less common MSK injury/disease by pooling data across sites when local patient populations are small