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Podiatrists involved in groundbreaking technique

Tuesday 2nd September 2008

People with podiatry jobs may become an integral part of investigations into catching criminals, it has been revealed.

According to a recent report in the Herald, forensic scientists are hoping to use the techniques of podiatrists to identify criminals.

Dumfries-based scene examiner Andrew Bain is currently researching how a person's so-called gait cycle - which is a unique pattern left by every foot on surfaces it stands on - can be used to identify offenders.

He said: "If the way a person walks and leaves a footprint is unique to them, then we should be able to record it for crime scene purposes and it should have evidential value.

"As people cannot yet fly, they have to walk into the crime scene."

In other news of potential interest to those with UK medical jobs, PhD student Wendy Powell from the University of Portsmouth has created a virtual reality physiotherapy treatment which is designed to trick patients into believing they are walking more slowly than they are.