New App Makes Smartphone a Medical Monitor For Lung, Heart Patients

Researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and the University of Illinois at Chicago have developed GaitTrack, a new app that monitors the walking patterns of chronic heart and lung patients and provides physicians with information about their cardiopulmonary, muscular and neurological health.

GaitTrack uses eight motion parameters to provide patients and physicians with a detailed analysis of the patient's gait. The gait information provides physicians with insight on the patient's condition and the app also warns physicians if the patient's symptoms worsen.

Researchers put GaitTrack to the test by administering six minute walk tests to 30 patients suffering from chronic lung disease. With a 90 percent accuracy rate, GaitTrack predicted lung function more accurately than medical acceleromerters that are traditionally used to collect data from the tests.

GaitTrack is now being tested in larger clinical trials and researchers hope to have the app available for download in the near future. 

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