1. A method for automatically determining numerical measures of the differences of a digitized target radiograph relative to non-pathological shape and appearance represented by a computer model, said method comprising: a. during a model building phase building a computer model from a set of sample radiographs chosen to substantially exclude pathological variations of a specified joint to represent variations in radiographic shape and appearance; b. during a runtime phase receiving a digitized target radiograph of a subject; c. during said runtime phase comparing said digitized target radiograph to said computer model; and d. during said runtime phase, in response to the comparison, automatically determining and report numerical measures of the differences of said digitized target radiograph relative to non-pathological shape and appearance represented by said computer model.