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

描述（由申请人提供）：这个SBIR项目将创建一个新的工具，通过自动化用户友好的、在家评估步行速度来改善老年人在研究和临床环境中的健康跟踪，这已经成为老年人健康状况和预期寿命的最强预测因素之一。它可以预测机构化、发病率和死亡率，并对与健康恶化、住院利用率增加和相关医疗费用增加相关的变化敏感。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，但对于远离研究地点的用户来说，这两种方法都是不可行的。此外，即使在可能的情况下，这种访问也经常增加研究预算的大量费用。技术已经足够先进，我们可以开发出工具，使家庭或实验室不需要准确评估步行速度，也称为步态速度。这项技术的可用性，加上人们日益认识到它作为健康和功能状况预测者的重要性，也应该为广泛的临床应用打开大门。在这个应用程序中，我们提出了一个创建概念验证产品以实现这一目标的计划。我们的技术概念利用了现成的电子产品，避免了与制造定制硬件传感设备相关的许多问题。利用来自最终用户、研究人员和临床医生的广泛反馈，我们将组织焦点小组，收集示例行走数据，并执行可用性评估。在拨款结束时，我们将与20名老年人一起演示系统的性能，以展示速度测量的准确性和界面的可用性。

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.