FREEHAB Physiotherapy analysis of functional mobility (version 0.1)
Research type
Research Study
Full title
FREEHAB study 1: Physiotherapy analysis of functional mobility: walking, standing and transfer in stroke and older people
IRAS ID
264069
Contact name
Jonathan Rossiter
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Bristol
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 0 months, 0 days
Research summary
There are over 10.8 million disabled people living in the UK today. Nearly 6.5 million have mobility impairments. The largest causes of impairment are age-related degradation (40% of over-60s have disabilities affecting daily lives) and stroke (there are over 1.2M stroke survivors in the UK). These numbers are growing as the median population age increases and age-related mobility issues dominate. The increasing need for effective rehabilitation may be addressed by the development of devices that will enable more targeted and personalised practice of mobility tasks.
This study is the first work package of a FREEHAB project. FREEHAB aims to develop prototype wearable devices for use by clinical therapists in hospital and home settings, to improve analysis of movement, treatment planning and mobility training. Devices will be developed to suit different mobility tasks and therapeutic purposes. The devices will be developed for assessing and assisting walking, standing and sit to stand movements. Different versions of the devices will be designed to assist therapists to carry out biomechanical analysis of patients’ performance to enable personalised training plans, and for the patients to practice their mobility tasks to improve rehabilitation.
The first step in the FREEHAB project is this observational study of physiotherapists’ practice to determine specifications for end-user cases. We will do this by video analysis of physiotherapists’ practice with their patients, clinical measures and biomechanics analysis of patients' performance. We will recruit physiotherapists and their patients who are working on achieving mobility goals in hospital or in the home. We are aiming for 30 patient participants. Patients will be recorded being assessed for one or more mobility task(s). Clinical assessments will be recorded in the patient's home or the hospital. Patient participants will be invited to participate in biomechanics recordings of their movements at a follow up appointment.REC name
South West - Frenchay Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
20/SW/0092
Date of REC Opinion
3 Aug 2020
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion