University of Melbourne PhD candidate Deepti Aggarwal, pictured with SoPhy “Smart Socks.” The socks are described as a wearable technology that can provide detailed data on a patient’s movements, and can also supplement face-to-face consultations. (Photo courtesy of The University of Melbourne)
“Smart Socks” are aimed as a possible solution to the lack of access many patients in rural areas have to physiotherapy and physical therapy services, and to the limitations of video consultations, according to their inventor: Deepti Aggarwal, a PhD candidate at The University of Melbourne.
They are designed to provide physiotherapists real-time information regarding a patient’s body movements while engaging in a video consultation.
They feature three sensors that capture information about the patient’s weight distribution, range of movement, and foot orientation in the patient’s lower limbs. The information is then transferred to a web interface, where it is presented to therapists via foot sketches.
During a video consultation, the patient wears the socks—called “SoPhy”—and performs exercises that they would do in a face-to-face physical therapy session, such as rising onto their tip-toes, and performing squats and toe curls.
Aggarwal’s idea for the invention was sparked while she was observing physiotherapists at the Royal Children’s Hospital, and witnessing what her father experienced when he injured his ankle in his small hometown of India and was unable to seek treatment, such as physical therapy services, due to the travel costs, according to a news story from the University of Melbourne.
“To assess patients’ recovery, physiotherapists must be able to closely observe the subtle differences in their movements,” says Aggarwal, a PhD candidate at the University of Melbourne School of Engineering.
“What was lacking in video consultations was the ability to observe the subtle differences in patients’ lower limb movements, such as shifts in weight distribution and range of foot movements.”
“This meant that physiotherapists had limited understanding of the patient’s actual recovery, leading to less specific treatment. The physiotherapists were also reluctant to try out new exercises with the patients over video,” she adds in the news story.
In a trial performed at the Royal Children’s Hospital, the socks increased the therapists’ confidence in their assessments by providing movement related information that wasn’t otherwise visible. And patients received real-time feedback on the little changes in their movements, the news story continues.
“They got a better understanding of what they should be doing instead of what they were doing, which made the therapy goals simpler and more achievable for them,” Aggarwal says.
The information also helped physiotherapists correct their assessment when visual cues were misleading, allowing them to adapt the exercises based on the patient’s condition.
Aggarwal stresses that these socks are not meant to replace face-to-face consultations; instead, they offer a next-best solution to support remote patients in critical situations, such as those with severe pain and mobility issues.
[Source: The University of Melbourne]
