APDM Engineers Help Design Device to Alleviate Freezing of Gait

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Referred to as “VibroGait,” the system is comprised of three parts: an APDM movement sensor, a novel controller unit, and a tactor unit to generate vibration. This vibration can be automatically triggered as the wearer reaches stance phase in a gait cycle, or when motion “freezes.”

APDM engineers Lars Holmstrom, James McNames, Andrew Greenberg, and William Harrington teamed up with OHSU’s Dr. Fay Horak, Dr. Martina Mancini, and Ed King to create the system for use on Parkinson’s (PD) subjects.

Early testing has shown a significant decrease in freezing of gait (FoG) in all conditions.

The device was designed and built primarily by Will Harrington at APDM’s Portland office, and research supported by the VA and NIH recently took place in OHSU’s Balance Disorder’s Lab. The research objective was to develop a tactile biofeedback system effective in alleviating FoG in PD.

Harrington comments, “…it is big development in wearable technology for parkinson’s disease patients because research shows that it can help alleviate freeze of gait, especially in turns. I am extremely grateful for APDM allowing me the opportunity to work on something of such great importance.”

Gait disturbances in Parkinson’s disease are particularly concerning due to their association as a major risk factor for falls, trips to the hospital, and death in PD (Morris, et al. 2001). Additional research has shown that FoG occurs in specific conditions where proprioception and postural adjustments are necessary for locomotion. FoG most often occurs when motor control is asymmetric, such as turning or initiating walking, when movement relies heavily on task-specific changes in proprioceptive feedback (Schaafsma, et al. 2003). For example, relying on your body’s ability to navigate a turn in a hallway or walk through a doorway. For these reasons, the team believed that by augmenting somatosensory information by using biofeedback during specific phases of the gait cycle, they may see an improvement in gait disturbances.

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A paper outlining the study, “Alleviating Freezing of Gait using phase-dependent tactile biofeedback” was recently published by IEEE and presented at the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society conference. The team states “Our long-term goal is to develop a system that could be used during normal daily activities to automatically monitor and condition motor performance when needed.”

The video below shows a PD subject wearing VibroGait in OFF and ON states.

For more information about APDM wearable sensors, click here.

APDM VibroGait Demonstration of Efficacy
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