Musculoskeletal disorders, like osteoarthritis, are one of the leading causes of knee pain and disability. The Lausanne-based start-up Sensemodi develops a smart wearable that allows to assess the health of joints while the joint is in motion.
What sets the new technology apart is that it is not only non-invasive, but also holistic and easy to use. Within ten minutes, the wearable generates a knee health score by extracting and, supported by AI, aggregating parameters from different sensors. Acoustic sensors quantify joint friction and abnormal noise, as an indication of tissue damage. Thermal sensors measure temperature distribution at various locations to quantify localized inflammation or infection. And kinematic sensors help segment acoustic data, quantify joint instability and evaluate the gait to detect abnormalities. The data is gathered through performing simple tasks while wearing the device, such as walking, bending the knee, standing on one leg or sit-to-stand movement.
This allows doctors and physiotherapists to detect conditions early on, take prevention measures, optimize patient-specific treatment plans and improve treatment outcomes. Next to its application in healthcare in general, from diagnostics to rehabilitation, the technology can prove beneficial also in sports. It can help:
- Assess the knee performance of athletes for an early detection of potential risk of injuries
- Monitor the knees following an injury to help decide when the athlete can go back at full training
- Evaluate the distribution of loads in the joint during exercise and detection of abnormal effusions.
To date, the technology has been tested in public and private hospitals and clinics, both in Finland and in Switzerland. In total, over 200 patients have been tested with the Sensemodi technology.
Find out more about Sensemodi at www.sensemodi.com.
