Rigorous validation of musculoskeletal models is time consuming and often technically difficult. And so, the question arises, “How good is good enough?” The goal of this paper is to offer a response to that question. The discussion will be complemented by relevant validation examples from the open literature pertaining to one commercial musculoskeletal simulation software, the AnyBody Modeling System (AMS).
Given that a model has been built with good (verified) software, validation is the critical step of corroborating that model predictions are representative of the physical system. There is a relatively well-established validation vocabulary [1] that mirrors concepts derived from other fields (e.g., FEA, CFD). Direct measurement of model-predicted quantities is preferred. When outcome metrics are difficult or impossible to measure directly, indirect validation through surrogate measures is common. And trend validation ensures that the complex interactions among many musculoskeletal parameters are consistent with physical behavior. There are...
