Abstract

Have you ever thought about how you walk? Did you know that mobility and the way you walk – (your gait) is considered the 6th vital sign, acting as a biomarker for health status and brain function?

Mobility is emerging as a powerful tool to detect early risk and monitor disease progression across a number of diseases (e.g., Parkinson’s disease (PD)).

Typically, quantitative gait assessment has been limited to specialised laboratory facilities. However, measuring gait in home and community settings (i.e., in the “real world”) may provide a more accurate reflection of gait performance as it allows walking activity to be captured over time in habitual contexts.

In this context, using digital health technology (e.g., accelerometers) allows objective measurement of real-world walking activity/behaviour as well as discrete gait characteristics (e.g., gait speed).

This workshop will give an overview of how and why we should monitor mobility in the real-world with digital health technology, and the types of data/information can be collected remotely. Advantages and challenges of using digital health technology for remote monitoring of mobility will be discussed, including results from clinical research applications in PD.