Continuous Monitoring of Patient Mobility for 18 Months Using Inertial Sensors following Traumatic Knee Injury: A Case Study

Continuous patient activity monitoring during rehabilitation, enabled by digital technologies, will allow the objective capture of real-world mobility and aligning treatment to each individual's recovery trajectory in real time. To explore the feasibility and added value of such approaches, we present a case study of a 36-year-old male participant monitored continuously for activity levels and gait parameters using a waist-worn inertial sensor following a tibial plateau fracture on the right side, sustained as a result of a high-energy trauma during a sporting accident. During rehabilitation, data were collected for a period of 553 days, with > 80% daytime compliance, until the participant returned to near full mobility. The participant completed a daily diary with the annotation of major events (falls, near falls, cycling periods, or physiotherapy sessions) and key dates in the patient's recovery, including medical interventions, transitioning off crutches, and returning to work. We demonstrate the feasibility of collecting, storing, and mining of continuous digital mobility data and show that such data can detect changes in mobility and provide insights into long-term rehabilitation. We make both raw data and annotations available as a resource with the aspiration that further methods and insights will be built on this initial exploration of added value and continue to demonstrate that continuous monitoring can be deployed to aid rehabilitation.