Veristride STEP-R: an interactive verbal/auditory gait trainer

Veristride IncProject Summary When surveyedof stroke survivors said the ability toget out and aboutis considered between important and essential for a better lifeHoweverthat desire falls short of reality for most stroke survivorsOftenwalking across a neighborhood street or from a car to a home is an insurmountable task with little opportunity for working on improvement in gaitOnce insurance coverage for physical therapy has endedgenerally six months after the strokethe stroke survivor is expected to continue to improve their functional mobility at homebut the monitoring is self assessmentwith no professional assistance for most peopleEnabling anyone with mobility issues to work on improving their gait at home has the potential to improve quality of life and reduce fall riskThis Phase I STTR proposes combining patented technologies to create a new product for stroke survivors to use at homecalled STEP RStep Training Enhances Performance with Rhythmic auditory verbal cuesThis technology builds on Veristrideandapos s existing PTMetrix productHIPAA compliant and registered with the FDAwhich has been brought to market with SBIR supportVeristride will partner with the University of MarylandBaltimore to incorporate cues based on the stride length velocity ratiowhich is key to improving gait qualitySTEP R will provide novel interactive rhythmic auditory plus verbal cueing with two major innovationsinteractive auditory cues that adjust based on real time measurements of walking interspersed with short verbal cuese gtake bigger stepsthat provide instructions like a physical therapistandapos s advice in the clinicSTEP R uses these adapting cues and alternating advice to improve gait quality long term by adapting to new stride length velocity ratiosa key component of gait qualityusing the verbal advice to guide the patient when to respond or maintain a new motor patternThe Specific Aims include AimDeveloping a working clinically valid prototype of STEP Rconsisting of adapting and integrating the existing Veristride system to include real time analysis and verbal cues along with clinical validation with chronic stroke survivorsand AimEvaluating STEP R with the same chronic stroke survivors in a home environment feasibility trialand investigating user feedback among these stroke survivors and physical therapists who treat stroke to evaluate the use of STEP R with sub acute patients in the clinicMeeting milestones and preliminary efficacy data will provide statistical powering for a Phase II clinical trial Veristride IncNarrative Stroke survivorsM US adultsand other persons with ambulatory disabilitiesM US adults totalwant to be mobile and self sufficientbut often cannot sustain or improve their walking qualityGains from therapy protocols used in the clinic often are typically lost once therapy is concludedbecause equipment and continued therapy are costly and often too impractical for home useThis STTR proposal will use patented technologies to provide an easy to use at home solution that helps those with ambulatory disabilities to achieve permanent gains in walking ability and quality of life