Blank Children’s Orthopaedics and Blank Children’s Therapy Services, in partnership with Des Moines University, recently welcomed its first pediatric patient to the state-of-the-art human performance lab for gait and motion analysis. “Ensuring high-quality specialty care to children is our mission and establishing a gait lab for our orthopaedic patients enables us to meet a critical need for children here in our community and across our state,” said Dr. Steve Stephenson, president and chief operating officer of Blank Children’s Hospital. Information from gait and motion analysis, partnered with imaging scans, medical history along with the results of other evaluations, helps the care team recommend the best treatments for a wide variety of conditions that disrupt movement. Leading the program is Dr. Lael Luedtke, who joined Blank Children’s Orthopaedics in partnership with Shriners Children’s Twin Cities in October 2020, along with three pediatric physical therapists and a biomedical engineer from Blank Children’s Hospital. Gait and motion analysis will be performed two mornings a week at the DMU Human Performance Lab located at 3200 Grand Ave. To learn more about gait and motion analysis, call Blank Children’s Orthopaedics at 515-241-7202.