Welcome to the Podiatry Arena forums

You are currently viewing our podiatry forum as a guest which gives you limited access to view all podiatry discussions and access our other features. By joining our free global community of Podiatrists and other interested foot health care professionals you will have access to post podiatry topics (answer and ask questions), communicate privately with other members, upload content, view attachments, receive a weekly email update of new discussions, access other special features. Registered users do not get displayed the advertisements in posted messages. Registration is fast, simple and absolutely free so please, join our global Podiatry community today!

  1. Have you considered the Clinical Biomechanics Boot Camp Online, for taking it to the next level? See here for more.
    Dismiss Notice
Dismiss Notice
Have you considered the Clinical Biomechanics Boot Camp Online, for taking it to the next level? See here for more.
Dismiss Notice
Have you liked us on Facebook to get our updates? Please do. Click here for our Facebook page.
Dismiss Notice
Do you get the weekly newsletter that Podiatry Arena sends out to update everybody? If not, click here to organise this.

Monty Python Silly Walk

Discussion in 'Biomechanics, Sports and Foot orthoses' started by NewsBot, Mar 12, 2020.

  1. NewsBot

    NewsBot The Admin that posts the news.

    Articles:
    1

    Members do not see these Ads. Sign Up.
    Press release:
    Monty Python’s Silly Walk: A Gait Analysis & Wake-Up Call to Peer Review Inefficiencies
    HANOVER, N.H. – March 12, 2020 – Fifty years ago, Monty Python’s famous sketch, “The Ministry of Silly Walks,” first aired on BBC One. The sketch pokes fun at the inefficiency of government bureaucracy. It opens with the Minister (John Cleese) walking in a rather unusual manner to his work, the Ministry of Silly Walks, where Mr. Pudey (Michael Palin) is waiting to meet with him to apply for a government grant to develop his silly walk. In the spirit of Monty Python’s humor, based on an actual gait analysis, a Dartmouth research team finds that the Minister’s silly walk is 6.7 times more variable than a normal walk. The findings are published in Gait & Posture.

    Although Mr. Pudey’s walk was found to be only 3.3 times more variable than a normal walk, the research team agreed with the Minister’s decision that he had a promising silly walk that was deserving of a Research Fellowship.

    The team points out how bureaucratic inefficiency can be likened to that of the peer-review process associated with academic research in the health sciences, particularly when applying for funding. Applying for a federal grant is extremely time consuming and can take months to prepare. An application may require a 150-page proposal followed by a review by a panel of researchers, who are often flown in for the occasion. Peer review protocols often require that the panelists must reach a consensus of 75 percent or more to approve a proposal.

    By contrast, the Dartmouth team points out how the National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia pioneered a streamlined grant application process in 2013, which resulted in an estimated savings in 2015 of $A2.1-$4.9 million per year.

    “The peer review research process has become rather unwieldy,” said Nathaniel J. Dominy, the Charles Hansen Professor of Anthropology, who co-authored the study with Erin E. Butler, who was a postdoctoral fellow at the Neukom Institute at Dartmouth at the time the research was conducted. “If the process was streamlined and grants were awarded more quickly, researchers could start their work earlier, accelerating the timeline for research. Similarly, grant administrators would recoup time and money, which could potentially free up more money for research funding,” explained Dominy.
     
  2. NewsBot

    NewsBot The Admin that posts the news.

    Articles:
    1
    Peer review at the Ministry of Silly Walks
    Erin EButler Nathaniel JDominy
    Gait & Posture; 26 February 2020
     
  3. NewsBot

    NewsBot The Admin that posts the news.

    Articles:
    1
  4. efuller

    efuller MVP

    I've always used the sketch as an illustration of the concept that we choose how we walk. It may be a sub conscious choice, but how we walk is a choice. The choice may be influenced by the shape of the foot, but the CNS controls the muscles.
     
Loading...

Share This Page