The GaitSmart study, a project to support patients during hip and knee replacement recovery using wearable technology, has been shortlisted for a national innovation award.
Dynamic Metrics Ltd alongside the Orthopaedic Clinic Research team at the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and the University of East Anglia Health Economics team have been shortlisted for the Healthcare and Medical category of The Engineer UK’s “Collaborate to Innovate Awards” #C2IAwards to be held in February 2024.
The project, funded by Innovate UK’s Digital Health Technology Catalyst, ran at NNUH between 2020 and 2022 to develop and test a system for assessing a patient’s mobility and improving their gait post joint replacement.
The GaitSmart device provides a standardised digital gait analysis to measure a patient’s walk, and then creates a bespoke strengthening exercises programme for them to follow to enable improved rehabilitation.
The trial results demonstrated that the intervention programme improved clinical outcomes and using the health economic model developed by ‘Health Economics Consulting’ at UEA provided a cost saving for the NHS. This data formed part of the Guidance submission to the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE).
Professor Iain McNamara, Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon at NNUH, said: “Mobility is a fundamental aspect of healthy ageing and one of the few medical fields where technology is rarely used. We are delighted that this project is up for this national award, which has demonstrated how technology may improve patient care by enabling more patients to receive rehabilitation following surgery and free up physiotherapists for those who would benefit from one-to-one care the most. We are looking forward to seeing how this develops to help patients across the NHS.”
“It was great to work with in collaboration with Dynamic Metrics and UEA on this clinical trial and we are grateful to the participants who engaged with the study and were excited by the future potential for the technology both in rehabilitation but in other aspects such as pre-operative care and falls and frailty.”