ݮƵ researchers lead remote wearable technology program
When youhavea neurodegenerative disease, like Parkinson’s or Alzheimer’sdisease, your symptomsmayebb and flow during the day. Going into a clinic for testing captures your status at that point in time, but how do yougain an understanding ofwhat is happening throughout the rest of thedayor over the course of many days?
Kinesiology researchers at the University of ݮƵ areleadinga remote monitoring wearable technologyprojectcalledONDRI@Home,a platform of research withinthe,which is supported by the Ontario Brain Institute.ONDRI@Homeaims to monitor participants’ overall health and function, such as sleep, movement andsocialengagement as they go about their daily livesin thecomfort of theirhome environments.
“Theprogramworksonseveral levels,” says Karen Van Ooteghem, a researcher with theNeuroscience, Mobility and Balance (NiMBal)Lab here atthe University. “At the individual level,data from these sensorsempowers individuals to make positive lifestyle changes,self-manage symptomsof their disordersand monitortheirownhealthfortimelyinterventionwhenthere is a change in their health status.”
It alsoprovidesinformation to their cliniciansthat may translate intobetter care, and ithas the potential tolessen the burden on care partners who typicallyplay an important role incaring fortheir loved onesliving with neurodegenerative disease, she says.Finally,because the aggregated data is deposited in a largerrepository, calledBrain-CODE, it can serve as a population-level tool as well.
“There was an increased recognition that things that were being captured in clinic were great – gold standard–—but what was missing were measures that were important to describe the progression and status of neurodegenerative disease at home,” says Bill McIlroy, a Kinesiology professor and head of theNiMBalLab.
“Things like falls are never really captured well in a clinical setting, so weadvocated for awearable approach, where we would have an at-home component to the assessment going forward.”
More apparent than before
Thepandemic accelerated the need for this type of remotehealthmonitoring. “The need to pivot to capture information from theseindividualsand to develop newapproachesto monitor healthbecame even more apparent than it was before,” says Van Ooteghem. The team is now serving up to 300 patients per year, and growing fast, McIlroy adds.
The researchers are capturing data not onlyfrompeople with neurodegenerative disease, but alsofromhealthy peoplefor comparisonthrough theKinesiologyDepartment’sCentre forCommunity,Clinical and Applied Research Excellence(CCCARE).
“Participants wear a setofthree to foursensors that capture different but complementary information,” says Van Ooteghem. “A personalizedcombination of sensorsserves to optimizecollectionfor participants, dependent upon specific measures of interest, in order tohelp them with self-and clinicalmanagement. They wear these sensors for an extended period oftime to log or capture the data, then send them back to us, where we offloadand process it.”
The data reflectparticipants’activity, sleep, cardiovascular function and social engagement.“The approach that we’ve adopted is not to rely on commercial products; these are inadequate for health applications,” says McIlroy. “We are device agnostic: We don’t care what the devices are as long as they can get us the raw data needed to advance analytics and solve a health issue.”
For example,theresearchersare usingaccelerometrynot only to understand how people move, but also to capture speech patterns. “We can place it near the throat to capture speechbehaviourthat is picked up by the acceleration signals, which tells us howoften they are talkingandcapturingotherfeatures of their speechthatcan tell us howthey are doing in terms of social engagement,” says McIlroy.
“There is no need for a microphone, and we can tell how they are engaging with othersand the quality of their speech, 24/7.”
Spinoff benefit
A spinoff benefitof this projecthas been the development of a hands-on Kinesiology wearable technologies course for fourth-year students.Builton links between health and the use of wearable technology developed withinONDRI@Home,the courseprovides health science students with training on wearable technology and data analytics.
“Courses that integrate health sciences with practical training in technologyanddata sciences are increasingly important as the applications of technology continue to accelerate,” says Anton Trinh,a technicalsupportspecialist who co-developed the course with McIlroy.
Van Ooteghem says one of the most exciting aspects of this project involves the interdisciplinarity of their team, which includescollaborators from engineering andco-op students fromEngineering, Physics, Biostatistics and Computer Science.Most recently, thishasincludedthird-yearnanotechnologystudentHannah Bernstein, whocompleted aneight-month co-op placement with the group.
“As someone who wants to work in the health-tech field and someday build wearable sensors and medical devices, working with this group provided an incredible opportunity to learn from and work with experts in the field,as well as interact with doctors and patients who would useand benefit from the devices,”saysBernstein, whohad the opportunity to work on both thedeviceand algorithm side oftheprojects.
“A big challenge in a research program like this is finding the best way tomanageand processlarge volumesof data,” Van Ooteghem says. “We’ve needed programmers and engineers to help us build algorithms to make sense of it all. Through a series of code we’ve developed, wecantake raw data from the sensors and transform it into meaningful outputs.”
McIlroy, like all the researchers, tested the wearable tech before deploying it. When he first saw how fragmented his sleep was, he said it was an“eye-opener” and made changes to his lifestyle to correct for it.
This reaction isnot unusual, and this is what the researchers are counting on for both healthyindividuals and those living withneurodegenerativediseaseand their care partners.Aresearch programlikeONDRIprovides the foundation for developingsolutions tohelp improve quality of life forindividualsandtheir caregivers,and ultimatelywork at ahealth systemslevel by providing a more comprehensive view of disease that can guide health services.