In-Motion Infant Movement Analysis
Research type
Research Study
Full title
The In-Motion App: Feasibility of a smartphone application for computer-based movement analysis during the fidgety period of general movements.
IRAS ID
239746
Contact name
Claire Marcroft
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
St Olav's University Hosptial, Tronheim, Norway
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 6 months, 2 days
Research summary
Infants born preterm are at higher risk of suffering from neurodevelopment disabilities including cerebral palsy (CP). The General Movement Assessment (GMA) is an observational method for classification of spontaneous movements in young infants. It is highly effective and accurate in the early identification of infants who will go on to develop CP.
The GMA is recommended for use in clinical practise in the UK part of developmental follow up for infants at high risk of neurodevelopmental disabilities. The infant’s spontaneous movements are video recorded in an outpatient clinic appointment and then after the appointment, the recording is watched by health professionals trained and experienced in classifying infant movement. The difficulties of applying this assessment clinically relate to the ‘state’ of the infant during the clinic appointment (the infant must be awake, alert) and the distance required for families to travel to clinic appointment.
Recently, features characteristic of normal and abnormal infant spontaneous movement have been processed by computer video analysis and have shown promising results for the early prediction of cerebral palsy in preterm infants. Our collaborators in Norway, Dr Lars Adde and team at St. Olavs University Hospital and the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Trondheim, have developed computer-based software which have shown strong associations with both the presence of abnormal general movements and later CP. They have also developed a smartphone app for home-based video recordings of infant’s general movements. The app is to enable parents and/or health care professionals to record a video of the infant’s spontaneous movements remotely. This will make it possible to optimise the chances of gaining a successful video recording and reduce travel time, burden and cost for families and the health service.
Our study will assess the feasibility of the In-Motion App for video recording of spontaneous movements in high-risk infants
REC name
South Central - Oxford B Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
18/SC/0350
Date of REC Opinion
9 Aug 2018
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion