NCInnovation grant advances wearable tech for osteoarthritis patients
A team of Carolina researchers received $400,000 to make detection and treatment affordable and accessible.
Carolina researchers working to revolutionize rehabilitation for individuals with osteoarthritis recently received a $400,000 grant from NCInnovation to advance their work in wearable technology.
The research team is led by Jason Franz, biomedical engineering professor in the Lampe Joint Department of Biomedical Engineering at UNC-Chapel Hill and NC State University, and collaborator Brian Pietrosimone, exercise and sports science professor in the UNC College of Arts and Sciences. They are developing a wearable system to detect and treat harmful walking patterns linked to the early signs of knee osteoarthritis and mobility problems.
This new grant can open the door to diagnosis and treatment for physical therapists and their patients without access to the sophisticated force sensors and motion capture equipment available in research labs.
“Receiving this grant will allow us to develop an alternative — a low-cost wearable sensing and machine learning platform capable of putting these pivotal discoveries in the hands of physical therapists, thereby enhancing the health and well-being of individuals with hip and knee osteoarthritis,” said Franz, who also has an appointment in the UNC School of Medicine.
Instead of needing specialized equipment or a specialist’s appointment, people can wear a small portable device during everyday walking. The system analyzes movement patterns and flags subtle changes linked to early-stage osteoarthritis. It then provides guidance backed by science to encourage healthier walking patterns toward healthier joints. This gives patients and clinicians an objective way to help prevent long-term disability. This is especially important in rural areas where access to specialized technology is limited.
(Graphic courtesy of UNC School of Medicine)
“With this two-year NCInnovation project, we are positioned to deliver fully functioning prototype systems to five regional physical therapy clinics, helping us move our research prototype to something being tried and evaluated in real clinical settings,” said Franz.
The research team will use the NCInnovation funding to refine and prepare the technology for broad clinical use. Their goal is to make detection and treatment affordable and accessible — so fewer North Carolinians have to live with chronic joint pain that could have been managed sooner or more effectively.
“In addition, by working closely with experts in entrepreneurship and commercialization, we will accelerate our path toward introducing this technology to the market, attracting follow-on investment and advance our University spin-off company to bolster genuine impact here in North Carolina,” Franz said.
This technology could help physical therapists better identify and treat early-stage osteoarthritis, which afflicts millions of Americans, said Michelle Bolas, NCInnovation’s interim CEO. “NCInnovation helps universities advance research with just this kind of real-world application, strengthening the university-to-industry pipeline that’s central to American competitiveness.”
