Project Details

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Wearable Gait Sensors

Company: Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center

Major(s):
Primary: BME
Secondary: CMPEN
Optional: ME

Non-Disclosure Agreement: NO

Intellectual Property: NO

The use of wearable devices has been increasingly explored in the healthcare setting to promote ambulation as well as assess gait and mobility in certain populations, including orthopedic surgery patients undergoing rehabilitation, stroke patients and those with Parkinson’s disease. One major challenge we currently face is the balance between allowing patients to freely ambulate while minimizing risk of falls in the hospital. Initiatives to prevent falls have the unintended consequence of reducing patient mobility. One innovative way to overcome this barrier is to have wearable gait sensors that assess a patient’s stability while ambulating and can detect and alarm at the first signs of instability. This will allow care providers to intervene before a fall occurs. This project would involve ongoing development of the work that was completed by the previous capstone project team. They have successfully developed an application that that uses the built-in sensors within an android phone to assess a person's gait while ambulating and assigns a "walking score." Any gait instability detected results in a lower score. The next steps would involve applying this to live patients and determine appropriate thresholds for alerting patients and nursing when early instability is detected.