Considerations for development of sensing and monitoring tools tofacilitate treatment and care of persons with lower-limb loss: A review

摘要

Sensing and monitoring technologies offer enormouspotential to enhance the quality of healthcare provided topersons with lowerlimb loss. Incorporation of these technologiesinto the rehabilitation process creates opportunities for amultidimensional exchange of timely, relevant, and meaningfulhealth information between patients, their prostheses, andhealthcare providers. Here, the authors envision a conceptualmodel for enhancing prosthetic rehabilitation through use ofintegrated physical and/or biological sensors and remote monitoringmethods. Several specific applications that target treatment,diagnosis, and prognosis of health issues faced bypersons with limb loss are proposed in an effort to demonstratehow collecting and using objective data can facilitate clinicaldecision making. Contemporary integrated sensors that may beused in these applications are reviewed and their limitationsdiscussed. It is hoped that the considerations proposed heremay serve to stimulate development of clinically useful monitoringand sensing technologies and promote their integrationinto routine amputation rehabilitation.