Smartphone-based activity tracking for spine patients: Current technology and future opportunities

Area of Science:

• Biomedical Engineering
• Digital Health
• Wearable Technology

Background:

• Activity trackers and wearables enable accurate monitoring of physical activity and vital signs.
• These technologies are valuable for tracking complex medical conditions, particularly in healthcare specialties like spine surgery.
• Current patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) are subjective and difficult to track frequently, presenting an opportunity for technological disruption.

Purpose of the Study:

• To provide a roadmap for developing activity tracker and wearable applications for spine patients.
• To outline available sensor tools, their integration, and current market applications for this patient group.
• To highlight the need for advanced smartphone applications for quantitative assessment of spine patient outcomes.

Main Methods:

• Review of existing sensor technologies including accelerometers, gyroscopes, magnetometers, barometers, GPS, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and microphones.
• Analysis of data integration from multiple sensors for detailed mobility and location tracking.
• Examination of current mobile health applications used in clinical care for spine patients.

Main Results:

• Sensor data integration allows for accurate mobility assessments, valuable across healthcare specialties, especially spine surgery.
• Existing mobile applications utilize sensor data for baseline and postoperative patient activity assessment, often combined with PROMs.
• Current applications have not fully leveraged the potential of available sensor technologies.

Conclusions:

• There is a significant need for smartphone applications that can accurately track the functional status and activity of spine patients.
• Developing such applications will enable more quantitative assessments of treatment outcomes, moving beyond the limitations of traditional PROMs.
• Further development in mobility technology can revolutionize patient monitoring and outcome assessment in spine care.