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指标之一。它预测住院、发病率和死亡率，并对变化敏感，这些变化在下降中与健康恶化、住院使用率增加和相关医疗成本上升有关。目前，步行速度评估的管理要求进行家访或访问实验室进行测量。虽然易于管理，但对于地理上远离研究地点的用户来说，这两种方法都不可行。此外，即使在可能的情况下，这种访问往往也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，使准确评估步行速度(也称为步态速度)无需再进行家访或实验室访问。这项技术的可获得性，加上人们越来越多地意识到它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。在这个应用程序中，我们提出了一个创建概念验证产品的计划来实现这一目标。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。利用来自最终用户、研究人员和临床医生的广泛反馈，我们将进行焦点小组，收集样本行走数据，并执行可用性评估。在拨款结束时，我们将通过一组20名老年人演示所产生的系统的性能，从而展示速度测量的准确性和接口的可用性。 公共卫生相关性：第一阶段SBIR项目的研发将证明一种方法的概念，该方法能够在家中进行用户友好的步速评估，这是目前只能通过家庭或实验室访问才能准确衡量的健康状况的宝贵指标。商业化后，这项技术将使目前仅限于健康状况自我报告的研究研究能够进行步态速度评估，并显著降低目前依赖家访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越来越为人所知，这是当今的一种趋势，作为医疗保健系统的一部分，该产品有可能成为监测老年人健康和状态的一种强大且经济高效的工具。

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.