Moving Biomechanics: Assessing Disability and Evaluating Interventions Through a Humanistic Biomechanical Lens

Disability assessment and rehabilitative intervention have long relied on clinical observation, self-report scales, and static imaging — tools that, while valuable, often fail to capture the dynamic, movement-based reality of how disability manifests in daily life. Human biomechanics — the study of mechanical principles governing body structure and movement — offers a powerful yet underutilized framework for objectively quantifying functional impairment, disease burden, and recovery trajectories.A humanistic biomechanical approach goes beyond engineering-driven analysis: it centers the lived experience of the individual while grounding measurement in rigorous, reproducible movement science. Advances in three-dimensional motion capture, markerless AI-driven pose estimation, wearable sensors, and musculoskeletal modeling now enable clinicians and researchers to quantify how conditions such as low back pain, osteoarthritis, or stroke-related gait impairment translate into altered movement patterns and measurable disability burden — with precision and ecological validity previously unattainable.This Research Topic calls for contributions applying human biomechanics principles to two intersecting challenges: the objective assessment of disability across musculoskeletal and neurological health, and the design and evaluation of biomechanically-informed rehabilitative interventions. By situating biomechanical evidence within patient-centered frameworks — including the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) — this collection seeks to advance a new standard for how movement science informs disability determination and rehabilitation practice.Key questions this collection will address:- How can 3D biomechanical analysis and AI-driven motion tools quantify functional disability burden — including for conditions like low back pain, where spinal load modeling now offers objective, scalable impairment metrics?- Which kinematic, kinetic, and neuromuscular parameters best differentiate disability levels, predict work capacity, and align with patient-reported limitations?- How can biomechanically-grounded interventions — exercise prescription, ergonomic modification, assistive technology, and movement retraining — be optimized using biomechanical outcomes as clinical trial endpoints?- How can markerless motion capture, wearables, and AI-based movement analysis transition from laboratory to clinical and real-world settings across diverse populations?- What are the implications of biomechanical disability assessment for policy, compensation systems, and disability determinations, and how can objective movement data inform legal and occupational frameworks ethically and equitably? Topic editors: Reuben Escorpizo, Boyi Dai, Carole A Tucker Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/78384/moving-biomechanics-assessing-disability-and-evaluating-interventions-through-a-humanistic-biomechanical-lens