A Gait Retraining Assistant through an Ankle Sleeve Mobile Companion Application Uniquely Designed for Knee Osteoarthritis Patients

Abstract

Osteoarthritis (OA) is a chronic degenerative disease that affects over 32.5 million adults in the United States, and can be caused as a result of injury to different joints, including the knee or ankle. Injuries and subsequent OA in these joints can cause the patient to experience pain and a reduced range of motion. Gait modification techniques can be used to reduce pressure on the affected ankle and knee joint, helping to alleviate some of the discomfort and pain. However, there are no methods available to remotely monitor patient progress. To address this issue, a system was designed to monitor the foot kinematics of patients in real-time via a wearable ankle gait detector sleeve and a companion mobile application uniquely designed to use with the gait detector sleeve. The gait detector sleeve along with the companion application will be able to provide patients with some training regimes to follow and remind patients to routinely follow the training regime. The application, built using Google’s Flutter, Dart, and Firebase will provide statistics such as step count, toe angle, provide various tips to alleviate OA pain, and function as an ideal method for patients to monitor their progress on the gait detector sleeve from the comfort of their home.