Clinicians' perspectives on inertial measurement units in clinical practice.

François Routhier,François Michaud,Elizabeth Turcotte,Cyril Duclos,Philippe S Archambault,Josiane Lettre,Émilie Lacroix,Laurent J Bouyer,Nathalie Hamel,Noémie C Duclos

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0241922

Abstract

Inertial measurement units (IMUs) have been increasingly popular in rehabilitation research. However, despite their accessibility and potential advantages, their uptake and acceptance by health professionals remain a big challenge. The development of an IMU-based clinical tool must bring together engineers, researchers and clinicians. This study is part of a developmental process with the investigation of clinicians’ perspectives about IMUs. Clinicians from four rehabilitation centers were invited to a 30-minute presentation on IMUs. Then, two one-hour focus groups were conducted with volunteer clinicians in each rehabilitation center on: 1) IMUs and their clinical usefulness, and 2) IMUs data analysis and visualization interface. Fifteen clinicians took part in the first focus groups. They expressed their thoughts on: 1) categories of variables that would be useful to measure with IMUs in clinical practice, and 2) desired characteristics of the IMUs. Twenty-three clinicians participated to the second focus groups, discussing: 1) functionalities, 2) display options, 3) clinical data reported and associated information, and 4) data collection duration. Potential influence of IMUs on clinical practice and added value were discussed in both focus groups. Clinicians expressed positive opinions about the use of IMUs, but their expectations were high before considering using IMUs in their practice.

Highlights

The use of technology is constantly increasing in our daily lives and in clinical settings, making patients’ assessment, therapy and follow-ups potentially easier and faster for healthcare professionals
Relevant text from the verbatim transcripts of the first series of focus groups was categorized into two main themes: 1) categories of variables that would be useful to measure with inertial measurement unit (IMU) in clinical practice, and 2) desired characteristics of the IMUs
Clinicians identified ten main categories of variables that would be useful to measure with IMUs in clinical practice: 1) gait (n = 24 occurrences; 24.0%), 2) posture (n = 18; 18.0%), 3) activities (n = 16; 16.0%), 4) falls and losses of Rehabilitation center CRLB HJR IRGLM IRDPQ

Summary

Introduction

The use of technology is constantly increasing in our daily lives and in clinical settings, making patients’ assessment, therapy and follow-ups potentially easier and faster for healthcare professionals. IMUs are small, self-contained and cost-effective devices that may allow acquisition of human movement data (e.g., body posture, upper and lower extremity movements, trunk movements) in an ecological and unconstrained environment [2, 4, 6] Due to these appealing characteristics, researchers have shown great interest in using these devices as wearable sensors on the human body to analyse multiple daily activities (e.g., walking, running, dressing and eating) [7,8,9,10]. The development of smaller, lower cost and lower power wearable wireless IMUs has increased the possibilities for use in rehabilitation contexts [2, 7] These technological innovations may allow clinicians to continuously monitor online objective data [11]. As compliance with rehabilitation treatment is often an issue, these objective data can provide patients with possibility to track their own evolution, which may enhance self-motivation and self-efficacy [2, 11]

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Discussion

Conclusion