Assessment of medical conditions by determining mobility

• US 20100049095A1
• Filed: 03/16/2009
• Published: 02/25/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 03/14/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Stresscam Operations and Systems Limited
• Original Assignee: Stresscam Operations and Systems Limited
• Inventors: Adair, Richard D., Bunn, Frank E., Bauer, William R.
• Granted Patent: US 7,988,647 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 600/595
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2503/08 Elderly
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/1038 Measuring plantar pressure during gait
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/1112 Global tracking of patients, e.g. by using GPS
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/1117 Fall detection
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/112 Gait analysis
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/1123 Discriminating type of movement, e.g. walking or running A61B5/1116, A61B5/112 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/4023 Evaluating sense of balance
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/7264 Classification of physiological signals or data, e.g. using neural networks, statistical classifiers, expert systems or fuzzy systems neural networks per se G06N3/00; expert systems per se G06N5/00
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/7267 involving training the classification device
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/60 for the operation of medical equipment or devices
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 50/20 for computer-aided diagnosis, e.g. based on medical expert systems
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 50/30 for calculating health indices; for individual health risk assessment
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 70/00 ICT specially adapted for the handling or processing of medical references
• CPC Class Codes: G16Z 99/00 Subject matter not provided for in other main groups of this subclass

Abstract

A mobility assessment detects abnormalities in motion using a stagger algorithm. The detected abnormalities are compared to known norms for a particular test to determine if the abnormalities are normal or not. The comparison can be made for abnormalities associated with different diseases and illnesses to classify whether or not the condition exists and its phase. The results may be used to generate a treatment regime.

Claims

1. A system for assessing the mobility of a subject, said system comprising a motion sensor to observe movement of a subject and generate a data stream representative of such movement, a comparator to detect abnormalities in such motion and compare said abnormalities to at least one known norm and an allocator operable upon an said comparator to indicate whether said output is within said known norm.

2. A system according to claim 1 including a pair of databases, each of which provides a respective known norm derived from the contents of the database, said comparator comparing said abnormalities to said known norms provided be said database.

3. A system according to claim 2 wherein said allocator is operable to add said abnormalities to one of said databases.

4. A system according to claim 3 wherein said comparator implements a stagger algorithm to detect abnormalities

5. A system according to claim 4 wherein said comparator incorporates a fuzzy logic decision engine to implement said stagger algorithm.

6. A system according to claim 2 including a mobility condition database containing records of abnormalities of prior assessments to permit the said output to be compared to prior assessments.

7. A system according to claim 6 wherein records of said mobility condition database include categories of conditions to permit said output to be compared to selected conditions and a classification of said condition obtained.

8. A system according to claim 7 including treatment database to permit said classification to generate a treatment regime.

9. A method of assessing mobility of a subject comprising the steps of recording motion of said subject, analyzing said subject for abnormalities of such movement, comparing said abnormalities to known norms and indicating whether said abnormalities is within a known norm.

10. A method according to claim 9 wherein said abnormalities are detected using a stagger algorithm.

11. A method according to claim 10 including the step of generating said known norms from a database of prior assessment.

12. A method according to claim 11 including the step of comparing said abnormalities to prior records of said subject.

13. A method according to claim 11 wherein said abnormalities are compared to prior assessments of different conditions.