New software may help neuropathic patients access clinical data on their own smartphones

To measure the speed, rhythm, and range of a patient's motor function, neurologists typically ask the patient to perform certain repetitive movements, such as tapping fingers or opening and clenching the hands

The new study, led by Hopkins, sought to find out whether pose estimation software developed by the research team could track human movements as accurately as manual, frame-by-frame visual inspections of video recordings of patients' movements

"Our goal was to develop a fast, inexpensive, and convenient method to objectively measure the movement of multiple limbs in patients," said study lead author Ryan Roemmitch, Ph.

The research team had 10 healthy subjects between the ages of 24 and 33 videotape themselves on their smartphones performing five tasks that neurology patients are usually assigned to them during motor function assessments: Tap fingers, close hands, tap toes, tap heels, and turn hands

The results showed that in all five tasks, the software accurately detected more than 96 percent of the movements detected by human detection methods

Their sample was healthy young adults, and the results were encouraging, and the team's next step is to test the software on people who need neurological care

"We want anyone with a smartphone or tablet to be able to record videos that doctors can successfully analyze," Romich said

Journal Reference :

1. Hannah L.