Measuring Changes in Gait and Vehicle Transfer Ability During Inpatient Rehabilitation with Wearable Inertial Sensors

Area of Science:

• Rehabilitation Medicine
• Biomedical Engineering
• Movement Science

Background:

• Functional independence in gait and vehicle transfers is a key goal in inpatient rehabilitation.
• Current ambulation assessments are often subjective, limiting precise progress tracking.
• Objective measures are needed to accurately evaluate rehabilitation outcomes.

Purpose of the Study:

• To quantitatively assess gait and transfer performances using wearable inertial sensors during inpatient rehabilitation.
• To evaluate the clinical utility of sensor-derived metrics through physical therapist feedback.
• To investigate objective methods for monitoring patient progress in rehabilitation.

Main Methods:

• Twenty patients undergoing inpatient rehabilitation were monitored using wearable inertial sensors during ambulatory tasks.
• A custom software system processed sensor signals to compute gait and transfer performance metrics.
• Repeated measures comparison of metrics, one week apart, quantified changes in ability.

Main Results:

• Significant improvements were observed in walking speed, stride regularity, acceleration root mean square, walking smoothness, shank peak angular velocity, and shank range of motion.
• Physical therapists indicated that sensor-derived metrics could provide valuable supplementary information for treatment planning.
• Wearable sensors offer a precise, objective method for assessing rehabilitation progress.

Conclusions:

• Wearable inertial sensors provide objective, quantitative data on gait and transfer abilities during rehabilitation.
• These metrics can enhance the assessment of patient progress and inform clinical decision-making.
• Objective sensor data holds potential to improve the efficacy of inpatient rehabilitation services.