Mission Statement:

At Equinosis^TM our mission is to assist and equip the equine practitioner by developing and providing wireless sensor solutions for collection of biological data useful in the diagnosis of equine disease.

History:

The Lameness Locator^TM technology is the culmination of over 18 years of research on gait analysis at the University of Missouri’s Colleges of Veterinary Medicine and Engineering and is primarily supported by the E. Paige Laurie Endowed Program in Equine Lameness at the University of Missouri.  The technology evolved from the development of motion analysis algorithms using a high-speed camera and treadmill-based system.  The algorithms were developed in a collaborative effort between practicing equine veterinarians and engineers for the specific purpose of lameness evaluation in horses.  The motion variables most likely to detect and quantify lameness were first found using sophisticated data mining search techniques and then tested and validated with robust neural network classification schemes.   The result was an objective method to evaluate lameness in horses but a method limited to research centers with high-speed cameras and an equine treadmill.

Later collaboration between the University of Missouri and the Hiroshima Institute of Technology in Japan adopted this analysis approach to a system of wirelessly-transmitted, body-mounted inertial sensors.  Over nine years of research and development have whittled the size, weight and number of sensors needed for the specific purpose of lameness evaluation down to a practical minimum.   The result was an objective method to evaluate lameness in horses by any equine veterinarian in the field.

Equinosis^TM LLC was founded in 2008 in Columbia, Missouri with its first objective to make the Lameness Locator^TM available to equine veterinarians and to elevate the quality of care, health, and well-being of horses.

The Co-Inventors of the Lameness Locator^TM System:

Dr. Kevin Keegan. Dr. Keegan is the founder of Equinosis^TM.  He is presently also a Professor of Veterinary Medicine and Surgery at the University of Missouri College of Veterinary Medicine and Director of the E. Paige Laurie Endowed Program in Equine Lameness.  Dr. Keegan is a 1983 graduate of the University of Missouri, College of Veterinary Medicine (DVM).  He was in private equine practice in Delaware and Maryland from 1983-1986.  He completed an equine surgery residency and masters degree in Veterinary Clinical Medicine at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign from 1986-1989.  He returned to private equine practice in Michigan for one year before returning to the University of Missouri as a faculty member in 1990.  Dr. Keegan became board-certified in the American College of Equine Veterinary Surgery in 1995.  He is a member of the American Association of Equine Practitioners, the American Veterinary Medical Association and the Missouri Veterinary Medical Association.  Currently, Dr. Keegan is serving as a consultant to Equinosis^TM to manage ongoing research and development that is contracted to the College of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Missouri.

Dr. Frank Pai. Dr. Pai is presently the C.W. LaPierre Endowed Professor in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at the University of Missouri.  Dr. Pai received his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Tamkang University in Taiwan in 1979, and M.S. in Mechanical Engineering from National Taiwan University in 1984 and a PhD in Engineering Mechanics from Virginia Tech in 1990.  Dr. Pai’s research interest and expertise in “structural damage detection” were instrumental in the development of the algorithms used in Lameness Locator^TM.

Dr. Yoshiharu Yonezawa. Dr. Yoshiharu is presently a Professor and Chairman of Health Science at the Hiroshima Institute of Technology. Dr. Yonezawa received his PhD in Electrical Engineering and Electronics from Aoyama Gakuin University in 1980.  Dr. Yonezawa’s research interest and expertise in “Bio-instrumentation system” were instrumental in the development of the hardware used in Lameness Locator^TM.