Walk-It: Home-based walking speed assessment technology for improved health track

Walk-It：用于改善健康轨迹的家庭步行速度评估技术

• 批准号: 8252782
• 负责人: PHILIP R SCHAEFER
• 金额: $ 15万
• 依托单位: VORTANT TECHNOLOGIES, LLC
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2011
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2011-09-30 至 2013-06-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/8252782
• 关键词: Academic Medical Centers; Address; Area; Awareness; Back; Budgets; Characteristics; Clinic; Clinical; Computer software; Computers; Coupled; Custom; Data; Development; Devices; Elderly; Electronics; Epidemiologic Studies; Epidemiology; Evaluation; Feedback; Focus Groups; Foundations; Furniture; Gait; Glosso-Sterandryl; Goals; Government; Grant; Health; Health Care Costs; Health Status; Health Status Indicators; Healthcare Systems; Home environment; Home visitation; Hospitalization; House Call; Image; Individual; Institutionalization; Knowledge; Laboratories; Life Expectancy; Measurement; Measures; Monitor; Morbidity - disease rate; Outcome; Patient Self-Report; Patients; Performance; Persons; Phase; Research; Research Personnel; Research Project Grants; Resolution; Running; Self-Help Devices; Site; Small Business Innovation Research Grant; Solid; Speed; Surveys; System; Target Populations; Technology; Technology Assessment; Telephone; Testing; Time; Visit; Walking; base; clinically relevant; cost; cost effective; functional status; geographically distant; image processing; improved; meter; mortality; older patient; research and development; research study; tool; trend; usability; user-friendly

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This SBIR project will create a new tool to improve health tracking of older adults in research and in clinical settings by automating user-friendly, in-home assessment of walking speed, which has emerged as one of the strongest predictors of health status and life expectancy among older adults. It is predictive of institutionalization, morbidity, and mortality and sensitive to changes which, in decline, are associated with worsening health, increased hospitalization utilization, and higher associated health care costs. Currently, administration of a walking speed assessment requires either a home visit or laboratory visit for measurement. While easy to administer, neither alternative is feasible for users geographically distant from the study site. Furthermore, even when possible, such visits often add substantial cost to research budgets. Technology has advanced sufficiently to the point where we can develop tools that render home or laboratory visits unnecessary for accurate assessment of walking speed, also termed gait speed. The availability of this technology, coupled with the growing awareness of its importance as a prognosticator of health and functional status, should also open the door to wide clinical use. In this application, we present a plan for creating a proof of concept product to achieve this goal. Our technical concept leverages readily-available electronics, avoiding many of the problems associated with manufacturing custom hardware sensing devices. Using extensive feedback from end users, researchers, and clinicians, we will conduct focus groups, collect example walking data, and perform usability evaluations. At the conclusion of the grant, we will demonstrate the performance of the resulting system with a group of 20 older adults, with which the accuracy of the speed measurements and the usability of the interface will be shown. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: The R&D in this Phase I SBIR project will result in proof of concept of an approach to enabling in-home, user-friendly gait-speed assessment, a valuable indicator of health status that currently can be accurately measured only with a home or laboratory visit. When commercialized, this technology will enable gait-speed assessment for research studies currently limited to self-reports of health status and significantly reduce costs in research projects currently relying on home or laboratory visits for gait speed assessment. As the clinical relevance of gait speed becomes more widely known, a trend being seen today, this product has the potential to be a powerful and cost-effective tool for monitoring the health and status of older adults as part of the healthcare system.

描述（由申请人提供）：该 SBIR 项目将创建一种新工具，通过自动执行用户友好的家庭步行速度评估来改善研究和临床环境中老年人的健康跟踪，步行速度已成为老年人健康状况和预期寿命的最强预测因素之一。它可以预测住院治疗、发病率和死亡率，并对变化敏感，而这些变化的下降则与健康状况恶化、住院利用率增加和相关医疗保健费用增加有关。目前，步行速度评估的管理需要家访或实验室访问进行测量。虽然易于管理，但这两种选择对于远离研究地点的用户来说都是不可行的。此外，即使可能，此类访问也常常会增加研究预算的大量成本。技术已经足够先进，我们可以开发出工具，无需回家或实验室就可以准确评估步行速度（也称为步态速度）。这项技术的可用性，加上人们日益认识到其作为健康和功能状态预测指标的重要性，也应该为广泛的临床应用打开大门。在此应用程序中，我们提出了创建概念验证产品以实现此目标的计划。我们的技术概念利用现成的电子设备，避免了与制造定制硬件传感设备相关的许多问题。根据最终用户、研究人员和临床医生的广泛反馈，我们将开展焦点小组活动，收集示例步行数据，并进行可用性评估。在资助结束时，我们将向 20 名老年人展示最终系统的性能，其中将显示速度测量的准确性和界面的可用性。 公共健康相关性：第一阶段 SBIR 项目的研发将验证一种方法的概念，以实现家庭、用户友好的步态速度评估，这是一种有价值的健康状况指标，目前只能通过家庭或实验室访问才能准确测量。当商业化时，该技术将为目前仅限于自我报告健康状况的研究提供步态速度评估，并显着降低目前依赖家庭或实验室访问进行步态速度评估的研究项目的成本。随着步态速度的临床相关性变得越来越广为人知（当今的趋势），该产品有潜力成为监测老年人健康和状况的强大且具有成本效益的工具，作为医疗保健系统的一部分。