Measuring Gait and Balance Workshop: Session 1

Opening, Ran Gilad-Bachrach – Microsoft Research

Talk 1: New tools and techniques for clinical gait analysis

Kat Steele – University of Washington

Instrumented clinical gait analysis has become a standard part of clinical care for the diagnosis and treatment of neurological disorders. Gait analysis provides a wealth of quantitative data; however, interpreting the deluge of data and making patient-specific treatment decisions remains challenging. Additionally, traditional gait analysis systems are prohibitively expensive and limited to ‘in lab’ conditions that may not reflect mobility and participation in daily life. We will discuss new tools and techniques, including dynamic musculoskeletal simulation, imaging, and ubiquitous computing that have the potential to improve patient-specific treatment planning and extend analysis of human movement outside of the lab.

Welcome to Microsoft Research, Eric Horvitz – Microsoft Research

Talk 2: The Perceived Usability of Fall Detection Devices for Older Adults

Shomir Chaudhuri – University of Washington

A third of adults over the age of 65 are estimated to fall at least once a year. Perhaps more dangerous than the fall itself is the time spent after a fall, especially if the fallen person is unable to stand or move. While there are many devices available to detect when a person has fallen, little is known about the opinions of older adults regarding these devices. To explore this issue, we conducted 5 focus groups at 3 different older adult communities with 27 participants. Transcripts were coded to generate themes that captured participants’ overall perceptions. In this presentation, I will discuss issues and concerns with current fall detection systems and suggest improvements based on participants’ feedback.

Speaker Details

Ran Gilad-Bachrach earned his Ph.D. from the Hebrew university in Jerusalem. Following that he joint Intel Research to lead a small group of researchers to study applications of machine learning for improving distributed computing. Later he joined Bing to work on whole page relevance. His latest position is in Microsoft research as a member of the machine learning group. His work focuses on machine learning, both theory and applications in the medical domain.

Kat Steele is an assistant professor in mechanical engineering at the University of Washington. Her research focuses on integrating dynamic simulation, motion analysis, medical imaging, and device design to improve mobility for individuals with neurological disorders. She earned her BS in Engineering from the Colorado School of Mines and MS and PhD in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford University. To integrate engineering and medicine, she has worked extensively in hospitals including the Cleveland Clinic, Denver Children’s Hospital, Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital, and the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago. She is also an expert user and developer of the free, open-source software platform for dynamic simulation of movement, OpenSim. More information about Dr. Steele’s research and the Ability Lab is available at: http://faculty.washington.edu/kmsteele/

Eric Horvitz is Distinguished Scientist and Managing Director of Microsoft Research Redmond. His interests include machine learning and reasoning, fusion of information from multiple sources, and decision support in uncertain and time-critical settings. He and his colleagues have made contributions to multiple Microsoft products and services over his 20 years at Microsoft. He has been elected Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI), and the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), and the National Academy of Engineering (NAE). He is currently serving as chair of the AAAS Section on Information, Computing, and Communications. He has served as President of the AAAI, on the advisory board of the NSF CISE Directorate, the council of the Computing Community Consortium (CCC), the Naval Research Advisory Committee (NRAC), and the DARPA ISAT Study Group. He received his PhD and MD degrees at Stanford University. More information can be found at http://research.microsoft.com/~horvitz.

I am currently an NLM Predoctoral Fellow in the 4th year of my PhD training in Biomedical Informatics and Medical Education. I am working with Dr. George Demiris and the Health-E Team on developing informatic solutions for older adults. My dissertation topic concerns the usability of fall detection devices specifically for adults over the age of 65.

Date:
Speakers:
Ran Gilad-Bachrach, Kat Steele, Eric Horvitz, and Shomir Chaudhuri
Affiliation:
MSR, University of Washington
    • Portrait of Jeff Running

      Jeff Running

    • Portrait of Ran Gilad-Bachrach

      Ran Gilad-Bachrach

      Researcher