1. A method for characterizing a knee joint in terms of a model parameterization, the method comprising: a. creating a deformable statistical template characterized by a set of parameters that, as a set, span an abstract vector space representing the set of spatial positions of specified features of the knee joint, each vector uniquely describing its variation from a population mean; b. fitting at runtime, in a two-dimensional image of the skeleture of a knee, a plurality of loci associated with specified features to allow parameterization in terms of a deformable statistical template; c. parameterizing positions of the plurality of loci in a given subject to derive values for parameters of the deformable statistical template; and d. characterizing the skeletal morphology of the knee of the given subject on the basis of either a subset of the plurality of loci, and/or the derived parameters of the deformable statistical template.