Wearable technology company APDM Inc has been awarded three NIH Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grants, totaling $4.6 million, to study how to improve quality of life for seniors through fall risk and rehabilitation.

The grants are as follows, according to a media release from Portland, Ore-based APDM Inc:

Mobility Life: Phase II SBIR – $2,932,813
Continuous monitoring of mobility in daily lives of people with Neurological Disease.
Supported by the National Institute On Aging of the National Institutes of Health under Award Number R44AG055388.

Mobility Clinic: Phase II – $1,457,589
A wearable system for assessment of Fall Risk associated with cancer treatment.
Supported by the National Cancer Institute of the National Institutes of Health under Award Number HHSN261201600067C.

Mobility Rehab: Phase I – $298,607
A Biofeedback system for mobility rehabilitation in older adults.
Supported by the National Institute On Aging of the National Institutes of Health under Award Number R43AG056012.

APDM will partner with Oregon Health and Science University (OHSU) on these projects. APDM will focus on technological development and predictive analytics, and OHSU will concentrate on managing data collection and scientific validation.

“What is unique about these projects is that APDM and OHSU are pushing the boundaries of wearable technology by collecting far more information than just activity and step counts. We can accurately measure the quality of a patient’s movement and how it changes based on the time of day or a particular intervention (eg, medications, physical therapy etc),” says Matthew Johnson, general manager at APDM, in the release.

“In previous studies we have seen fallers who are able to walk 10,000 steps per day, so a pedometer like FitBit is insufficient. Our technology can continuously measure a subject’s stride length, gait speed, and turn speed, just to name a few, all of which have been scientifically demonstrated to be more sensitive to neurological disease and fall risk,” he adds.

For more information, visit APDM Inc.

[Source(s): APDM Inc, PRWeb]