MOTOR: A tool to monitor mobility changes in knee osteoarthritis
The MOTOR consortium, consisting of the Radboudumc, Sint Maartenskliniek, University of Twente and Smith & Nephew BV, will combine their expertise on knee osteoarthritis (OA) and treatment, movement analysis, and algorithm development to develop a tool to easily track walking ability in patients with knee osteoarthritis.
Knee OA is world-wide a leading disease. People with knee OA experience pain that limits their activities of daily life, and thus impacts health-related quality of life. The estimated cost of a patient with OA is €15.000 per year. Success of treatment (for example exercise training or surgery) is typically evaluated asking the patient about their pain levels and daily activities. These reports are per definition subjective. This project aims to measure the mobility of people with knee OA in an objective way using wearable sensors. It is expected that such measures will provide a more complete image of the mobility of patients, that can help to better tailor the care.
The mobility tool will help to easily collect mobility measures, such as walking speed, stability during walking, time needed to rise from a chair. This project will test this tool for use in the clinic, and in the patient’s home situation. Clinicians and patients will be asked about the best ways to visualize these outcomes. Moreover, this project will ensure that clinicians can directly see the outcomes as part of the electronic patient record.
The mobility tool that this project will develop will consist of three components: 1) A software application in which the mobility data can be visualized in an optimal way for use by clinician and patient. 2) A toolbox containing validated algorithms to process sensor data to understandable mobility outcomes. 3) Reference data reflecting expected progress or recovery of mobility.
