B.2: Hospital in Motion - Prevention of complications through activity monitoring in hospital

Context and goals

Contact: Dr Samuel Wehrli (ZHAW), Lukas Geissmann (Leitwert AG) & Joris Kirchberger (USB)

Lack of exercise in hospitalised patients is a widespread problem that often causes complications and impairs recovery. Inactivity is associated with a loss of balance control, an increase in blood pressure and pulse rate, a reduction in FEV1 (the maximum amount of air that can be expelled in one second), and an increased risk of infection, pneumonia, decubitus ulcers and leg vein thrombosis. As general fitness and activity are not the responsibility of a specific professional, physical fitness and activity are not systematically recorded and patients are not encouraged to be active. This is where our solution comes in. Using wearables, the physical activity and mobility of patients is to be systematically recorded and presented transparently to both professionals and patients.

Ultimately, our developed product should

provide accurate, continuous and low-threshold information on the patient's physical activity,
provide a hospital infrastructure to automatically collect, store and process the data generated by wearable sensors in the hospital,
include analytics to automatically identify patient activity and assess mobility,
provide a user interface for the care team to access and maintain information, and
provide a user interface for patients to receive activity recommendations and increase motivation through gameification

Planned results

With Leitwert, an end-to-end application for the digital monitoring of patient activity and mobility is being developed in a pilot study and validated as part of a clinical study. The application can be used as a non-medical product to generally motivate patients to exercise more and as a medical product to support healthcare professionals in the treatment of inpatients and outpatients. The solution is based on a combination of wearables (measurement), the Leitwert device hub (data storage, gateways, algorithms) and end devices (visualisation) and processes activity data into specific parameters (categorisation of mobility, type and duration of activity, individual target achievement).

Contribution to overall innovation

The evidence-based mobilisation of patients has a positive impact on the success of treatment. The project builds on the technical foundations of A.1 and creates synergies with B.1. The solution also helps to dissolve the boundaries between clinical and home patient care, as it can also be used before and after hospitalisation (B.3).

Knowledge contributions from the project

Knowledge database

How can hospital associated disabilities be reduced?

There is now increasing evidence that hospitalisation can have a negative impact on health, especially in older patients. Impairment of functioning…

Knowledge database

Hospital in Motion: motivating movement with a digital assistant

Lack of exercise among patients in hospitals is a common problem - and this is precisely where an innovative solution comes in: A wearable-based…

Knowledge database

How do I make my patients part of the solution (co-creation)?

Actively involving patients in the promotion of movement (co-creation) can significantly improve their recovery and satisfaction. Collaboration…

Knowledge database

How can physical activity reduce the readmission rate in acute hospitals?

Lack of physical activity during hospitalisation often leads to complications and increases the risk of patients having to be readmitted after…

Knowledge database

Expanding the skills of specialist staff for the effective use of wearables in everyday hospital life

In hospitals, patients' lack of exercise often leads to complications and slows down the recovery process. As there is no dedicated specialist…

Partners

Success is based on a solid partnership, which is why a large number of partners are involved in the project, whose participation guarantees its overall success:

Institut für Computational Life Sciences (ICLS)

The Institute of Computational Life Sciences (ICLS) at the ZHAW has extensive experience in the analysis of biological-medical time series, images and categorical data using machine learning and has already applied its expertise in time series analysis for monitoring to related problems.

Universitätsspital Basel

The therapies at the University Hospital Basel consist of speech therapy, occupational therapy and physiotherapy and comprise around 80 therapists. They provide their services promptly, 365 days a year, from pre- to post-operative care. They are experts in their fields and offer highly specialised and patient-oriented therapy. They also carry out therapy-specific, clinically relevant professional and interprofessional research and development projects and enter into targeted cross-hospital, clinic and therapy-specific partnerships.

Leitwert AG

Leitwert is an SME with roots at the ETH. We specialise in the development of software for medical wearables and their integration into clinical research and care processes for the continuous measurement of health data. Our Device Hub platform is optimised for organisations that use both inpatient and outpatient wearables from various manufacturers and want to manage and monitor them via a single interface. The data always remains on the systems and under the full control of our customers. Our gateway enables complete automation of data synchronisation between wearables and the device hub without patients having to operate a mobile phone or register. This allows it to be used in inpatient hospital settings and reduces the need to intervene in patients' everyday lives at home. The Device Hub can be operated on its own or in combination with clinical information systems and analysis services.