I-Corps: Remote monitoring and assessment tool for spinal care patients

这个i-Corps项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力是开发一种系统，用于测量肌肉骨骼功能并全天监测患者的活动。下腰痛是导致全球残疾的主要原因，高达80%的美国人将在一生中经历下腰痛。这些患者的诊断和治疗途径复杂、昂贵(非手术和手术干预的费用从10,815美元到87,000美元不等)，而且往往含糊不清。对于每年接受融合手术的162万美国人来说，他们的治疗并发症发生率高达50%，修复率超过36%。尽管如此，这些手术的比率仍在增长。1998至2008年间，颈椎、胸椎和腰椎融合术分别增长了90%、61%和141%。最近的研究发现，高达17%的脊柱融合手术是在不应该推荐手术的患者身上进行的。建议的技术可允许对肌肉骨骼疾病进行纵向跟踪和功能定量评估，并提供个性化护理和减少并发症。此外，建议的技术还可以应用于疼痛管理、骨科四肢市场和运动训练。这个i-Corps项目基于远程监测和评估工具的开发，为脊柱护理患者提供动态指标和指导个性化治疗。这项拟议的技术使用了一个由三部分组成的系统，其中包括一个可穿戴的阵列，一个以3D形式对脊柱建模的运动分析和校准算法，以及一个将记录的数据转换为临床指标的临床报告。其目标是分析48小时窗口内的动态运动、肌肉补偿和疼痛，为脊柱外科医生和疼痛管理从业者提供诊所外对患者的客观测量。这项技术建立在最近的研究基础上，这些研究表明，平均脊柱弯曲度可能与站立的放射图像有很大不同，如果不考虑这一点，可能会导致手术规划中的重大错误。建议的传感阵列将在标准会诊结束时在受控环境中放置在患者身上。开发的传感器校准方法将用于提高精度和减少放置误差，提供预测姿态估计系统。这一领域的进步可能会在自然环境中对患者进行以前未被捕获的功能评估，并导致远程监控方面的实质性改进。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this I-Corps project is the development of a system to measure musculoskeletal function and monitor patient movements throughout the day. Lower back pain is the leading cause of global disability and up to 80% of Americans will experience lower back pain in their life. The diagnosis and treatment pathways for these patients are complex, expensive (ranging between $10,815 to $87,000 for non-surgical and surgical interventions), and often ambiguous. For the 1.62 million Americans who undergo fusion procedures each year, their treatment is plagued with complication rates as high as 50% and revision rates upwards of 36%. Despite this, rates of these procedures are growing. Between 1998 and 2008, cervical, thoracic, and lumbar fusions rose by 90%, 61%, and 141%. Recent studies have found that up to 17% of spine fusions performed were on patients who should not have been recommended surgeries. The proposed technology may allow for longitudinal tracking and functional quantitative assessment of musculoskeletal disorders and provide personalized care and decreased complications. In addition, the proposed technology may be applied to pain management, the orthopedic extremity market, and sports training.This I-Corps project is based on the development of a remote monitoring and assessment tool to provide dynamic metrics and guide personalized treatment for spine care patients. The proposed technology uses a three-part system that consists of a wearable array, a motion analysis and calibration algorithm that models the spine in 3D, and a clinical report that translates recorded data into clinical metrics. The goal is to analyze dynamic movement, muscular compensation, and pain over a 48-hour window, providing spine surgeons and pain management practitioners with objective measurements of their patients outside of the clinic. The technology builds on recent studies that show that the average spinal curvature may drastically differ from standing radiographic images, which can lead to significant errors in surgical planning when not considered. The proposed sensing array will be placed on the patient in a controlled environment at the end of a standard consultation. Developed sensor calibration methods will be used to increase accuracy and reduces placement error, providing a predictive pose estimation system. Advancements in this field may enable previously uncaptured functional assessments of patients in a natural environment and lead to substantial improvements in remote monitoring.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.