Vado - Katrin Brunk
A tool designed to help physiotherapists perform better gait assessment on walking stick users
In the UK, around a third of the population aged 65 and over experience at least one fall each year. Falls are the most common cause of emergency hospital admissions for elderly people, and one of the main reasons for losing the ability to live independently.
Physiotherapists can help elderly patients to stay on their feet by assessing their gait quality and providing adequate care and advice. However, performing gait assessment in a clinical environment is not a good representation of everyday walking behaviour.
Vado is a gait monitoring device that replaces the standard ferrule on the end of a walking stick, providing physiotherapists with insight into how the patient’s walking behaviour varies in everyday life.
By monitoring weight bearing on the stick and the amount of steps taken, Vado can help identify how quickly the patient tires when walking thus helping to reduce the risk of falling. Physiotherapists can utilise the collected data set in addition to a typical gait assessment to offer the best advice and care for their patients.