System for assessing lower limb prosthetic patients' activity
Research type
Research Study
Full title
To develop a system to better understand the activities of lower limb prosthesis users in everyday life
IRAS ID
314743
Contact name
Matthew Wassall
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Salford
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 5 months, 30 days
Research summary
Activity level assessments for lower limb prosthesis patients have shown to have variability and can be unreliable. As activity level is a driving factor for the type of prosthesis offered to a patient and is critical for contribution of medical insurance, an inaccurate assessment could have a massive effect on the patient’s care, lifestyle, and potentially finances. This issue is mainly seen when distinguishing between a K2 and K3 patient; K levels aim to indicate the potential of the patient to use a type of prosthesis. The desired requirements for a sensor-based system that could aid clinicians’ in their assessment have been highlighted. Two examples of these requirements were to be able to identify the terrain the patient is walking over in everyday life, and whether they are using a walking aid. No research has yet attempted to classify such activities from a sensor-based system for a lower limb prosthesis patient.
It is the aim of this project to develop a wearable sensor system for real-world monitoring of activity to support K level classification of amputees and thereby enhance prosthesis prescription. A range of sensors will be used for this research such as IMUs and pressure sensors. The sensors will be attached to the participant's torso, lower extremities and their prosthesis, in locations including the spine, pelvis, shank, shin, and foot.
It is the first objective to develop a wearable sensor system and associated algorithms to classify activity in lower limb amputees, and validate the system’s outcome measures against gold-standard output of either a lab-based motion tracking system or below-head video recordings.
REC name
East Midlands - Nottingham 2 Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
22/EM/0134
Date of REC Opinion
1 Jul 2022
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion