Autonomous Gait Monitoring in Parkinson’s Disease
Bhawna Shiwani
John Letizi
Monitoring gait with wearable sensors holds promise for improving medical assessment and treatment for millions of people affected by movement disorders like Parkinson’s Disease (PD). However, most sensor-based gait monitors fail to detect subtle yet clinically relevant abnormalities, such as reduced arm swing or shuffling of steps. National Institutes of Health (NIH) actively supports translational research efforts aimed at decreasing the burden of PD and other neurological diseases. With funding from NIH, we have developed a novel approach consisting of advanced body-worn sensors and machine-learning algorithms to monitor, in real-time, the quality of gait movements in activities of daily living.