SBIR-STTR Award

Mobility limitations including gait and balance impairments are common in older adults and are a major cause of falls and reduced quality of life. Although laboratory studies show that biofeedback during exercise training can improve motor performance, physical therapists do not have access to an overground gait biofeedback system for their patients. We will develop Mobility Rehab, a visual biofeedback system for personalized rehabilitation in which therapists can characterize gait, determine which gait condition to train, and select the speci?c metric to target for training overground or on a treadmill. The system will provide reports that show clinically actionable measures of gait and balance. This 1-year project has two speci?c aims: AIM I. Develop and validate a visual biofeedback system. This aim will be achieved with two milestones: Milestone 1: Develop and validate real-time algorithms to calculate clinically actionable gait metrics including double support time, step time asymmetry, foot clearance, arm swing, pitch angle at heel-strike, and trunk lateral stability during gait. We will validate the new algorithms with a gold-standard Motion Analysis system in 15 older adults with gait impairments. Milestone 2: Develop a user-interface for Mobility Rehab to display real-time and longitudinal gait metrics for therapists and their patients. AIM II. Demonstrate the feasibility of Mobility Rehab for gait training in older adults. This aim will be achieved with two milestones: Milestone 3: Evaluate the immediate e?ects of Mobility Rehab on gait training in adults with gait impairments. Milestone 4: Evaluate the clinical usability of Mobility Rehab in a physical therapy practice.

Public Health Relevance Statement:
Project Narrative We will use this Phase I grant to develop Mobility Rehab, a ?exible biofeedback system to provide visual biofeedback for gait training overground or on a treadmill for older adults, develop reports that show clinically actionable measures of gait and balance, and thoroughly verify and validate our technology.

Project Terms:
Adult; Algorithms; arm; Auditory; auditory feedback; Biofeedback; Businesses; Clinical; Clinical Trials; clinically actionable; Collaborations; cost; Cues; Dependence; Development; disability; Elderly; Employee Strikes; equilibration disorder; Equilibrium; exercise training; fall risk; falls; Feedback; foot; Gait; Gait abnormality; gait rehabilitation; Goals; Gold; Grant; Graph; Health Sciences; Heel; high risk; Human; Impairment; improved; Independent Living; innovation; instrument; Intervention; Laboratories; Laboratory Study; Lateral; Lead; Marketing; Measures; Medical; meetings; mobility rehabilitation; Monitor; Motion; Motor; Movement; Musculoskeletal Diseases; nervous system disorder; Neurology; Oregon; Outcome; Outpatients; Parkinson Disease; Patients; Pattern; Performance; Phase; physical therapist; Physical therapy; Physiological; Population; programs; Quality of life; Recurrence; Rehabilitation Centers; Rehabilitation therapy; Reporting; Research; Sensory; Services; Signal Transduction; stroke; System; Systems Analysis; Tablets; Techniques; Technology; Time; Training; treadmill; Universities; usability; Validation; Visual; visual feedback; Walking

Mobility limitations including gait and balance impairments are common in older adults, especially those with neurological de?cits. Gait and balance impairments are a major cause of falls and reduced quality of life. Although laboratory studies show that biofeedback during exercise training can improve motor performance, physical ther- apists do not have access to an overground gait biofeedback system for their patients. We will use this Phase II grant to 1) develop Mobility Rehab, a ?exible biofeedback system to provide visual and verbal biofeedback for gait training overground or on a treadmill for older adults with neurological de?cits, 2) thoroughly verify and validate Mobility Rehab in preparation for an FDA 510(k) clearance to market, and 3) use a pragmatic clinical trial to evaluate the e?ectiveness of Mobility Rehab on three hundred patients in a physical therapy clinic. This 2-year project has two speci?c aims: AIM I: Prepare Mobility Rehab for commercialization (APDM). The objective of this aim is to optimize the visual feedback, add a verbal commands mode, and prepare the system for a commercial launch for personalized rehabilitation in the clinic. AIM II: Determine the e?ectiveness of Mobility Rehab for gait training in adults with mobility disturbances (OHSU and NWRA). We predict that Mobility Rehab will be more e?ective for mobility rehabilitation than regular rehabilitation for adults with mobility disturbances.

Thesaurus Terms:
Adult; Age-Years; Algorithms; Base; Biofeedback; Biofeedback Training; Biological; Businesses; Centers For Disease Control And Prevention (U.S.); Clinic; Clinical; Clinically Actionable; Collaborations; Commercialization; Complement; Cues; Dependence; Disability; Dyskinetic Syndrome; Elderly; Equilibration Disorder; Equilibrium; Exercise Training; Falls; Feedback; Flexibility; Gait; Gait Abnormality; Gait Rehabilitation; Gait Retraining; Goals; Grant; Health Sciences; High Risk; Home Environment; Human; Impairment; Improved; Independent Living; Innovation; International; Intervention; Laboratories; Laboratory Study; Measures; Medical Care Costs; Mobility Rehabilitation; Modality; Mortality; Motor; Movement; Neurologic Deficit; Neurology; Oregon; Outcome; Outpatients; Parkinson Disease; Patient Education; Patients; Pattern; Performance; Phase; Physical Therapist; Physical Therapy; Population; Pragmatic Clinical Trial; Preparation; Programs; Quality Of Life; Randomized; Rehabilitation Centers; Rehabilitation Therapy; Reporting; Research; Response; Screening; Sensor; Sensory; Services; Signal Transduction; System; Techniques; Technology; Testing; Time; Tool; Training; Treadmill; Universities; Verification And Validation; Visual; Visual Feedback; Walking; Wireless Technology;