Fraunhofer Center for Assistive Information and Communication Solutions – AICOS21.6.2018
FhP-AICOS’ researcher Dinis Moreira presented a paper on FallSensing as a customizable clinical tool, at the 13th Annual IEEE International Symposium on Medical Measurements and Applications, held last week in Rome, Italy, at La Sapienza University of Rome.
The paper, titled “A Technological Solution for Supporting Fall Prevention Exercises at the Physiotherapy Clinic”, was authored by FhP-AICOS' researchers Joana Silva, Dinis Moreira, João Madureira, Eduardo Pereira, Inês Sousa, and André Dias from the Portuguese company Sensing Future Technologies.
Knowing that personalized physical therapy is proven to be better than generic exercises, within the FallSensing project, which focuses on fall risk screening and fall prevention, researchers have been working on increasing customization. The goal was to support fall prevention at physiotherapy clinics, with a system based on clinically validated methods, that at the same time allowed medical professionals to prescribe exercise plans based on individual needs.
The paper describes the result of this work, a technological solution to be used by physiotherapists, in a clinical context, for an objective analysis of fall prevention exercises, personalized exercise prescription and progression assessment over time.
The proposed solution aims to prevent falls by promoting physical exercise and reinforcing the correct execution of the exercises. The system was designed to allow its personalization for each user, by enabling the selection of individual exercise plans by the therapist, based on the user’s profile and previous history.
The solution includes two wearable inertial sensors to monitor exercises, and a pressure platform for mobility, strength and balance assessment.
In order to validate the system, a set of six exercises were tested with a group of 16 elderly volunteers at PhysioMondego, in Coimbra, during several sessions, and the results show that the sensors were able to successfully track range of motion, weight distribution and shifting, and balance and cycle during the exercises.
The international symposium, which ended yesterday, included papers that advance the science of measurement and instrumentation as related or applied to medicine.