Stroke therapy shoe empowers patients' recovery

 Didn't your competent? doctor start using this years ago? Oh, you don't have a functioning stroke doctor, do you?

• Moterum I Stride device (4 posts to March 2019)

Stroke therapy shoe empowers patients' recovery

by Tina Meketa,, University of South Florida

Credit: Kyle Reed and Moterum Technologies Inc.

In a rural village near Guadalajara, Mexico, Maria Magdalena Valencia Juares, known as Elena, has to climb 120 stairs to get to her home on the top of a hill. It's a source of exercise for the 70-year-old and the connection to her longtime community below. But a stroke in 2021 left her isolated in her 1,000-square-foot home. Her feet, too unsteady for stairs; her state of mind, declining with the compounded loneliness caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Valencia Juares wasn't formally educated, so her world depends on social interaction. However, the muscle weakness caused by her stroke and the risk of falling made that difficult to obtain. Her family lives thousands of miles away, her daughter Noemi Armenta in Los Angeles, and her unofficially adopted daughter, KC Hostetler, in Alaska. They saw from afar the toll Valencia Juares's stroke was having on her mental health and started searching for solutions in the United States.

"I had not been able to get back to Mexico because of COVID, so it had been a while since I was able to see her," Hostetler said. "By the time I reached her, she was in a really tough spot mentally and she was in a depression. We talked about how we can fix this, and she said she needed something that could stabilize her leg."

"Before the iStride treatment, I was isolated. Every day was a struggle, and I became desperate and very sad," Valencia Juares said. "I taught myself to get around the best I could so that I could try to do chores. I felt like such a burden. It was very hard."

Hostetler found information online about the iStride device, invented and patented by Kyle Reed, associate professor of mechanical engineering at USF, and licensed by Moterum Technologies Inc. The iStride is a portable, lightweight device designed for stroke patients that helps improve their walking ability. It straps over the patient's shoe on the good side of their body and the specially designed wheels generate a corrective motion during each step. Repeated use results in the stroke-impacted leg getting stronger and an improved gait once the shoe is removed.

After months of coordination, Hostetler and Armenta brought their mother to North Carolina to get therapy on the iStride device. They practiced what many take for granted—shifting from a sitting to standing position and walking. They walked up and down the halls over and over again on the iStride device, soon able to walk without a cane.

"The iStride gait device challenges the wearer by destabilizing the unimpaired leg, promoting increased use of the affected side," Reed said. "This changes the gait pattern so walking becomes easier after each session with an increased gait speed and reduction in gait asymmetry."

Credit: Molly Menchen, University Communications and Marketing

After about a month of therapy on the iStride, Valencia Juares returned home to Mexico, climbed all 120 stairs, and danced ecstatically when she got to the top.

"She was dancing. She hasn't danced in years, and being able to express that sense of joy since her incident has been really amazing," Hostetler said. "It's been amazing to see that transformation, she's much more like the person we knew before the stroke."

Valencia Juares's success story is far from anecdotal. Reed just published a study in the academic journal Frontiers in Neurology that examined the long-term impact of the iStride on gait speed in stroke survivors. The research team worked with 18 individuals who suffered a stroke, averaging within the last five years. Each patient received three, 30-minute therapy sessions a week for four weeks and had their gait checked several times over the course of the following year.

The results were rapid, with gait speed up an average of 50% within one month of starting therapy. What's even more remarkable, the improvements remained mostly unchanged one year after the iStride therapy sessions concluded. The average patient is now walking 0.21 meters per second faster than they were before the start of the study, averaging 0.74 meters per second. According to the National Institutes of Health, the walking speed of an average healthy adult ranges between 0.9 and 1.3 meters per second.

Reed says this is one of the greatest improvements ever recorded in an academic journal that's focused on enhancing gait speed in stroke survivors. He's published several related studies since he patented the iStride a few years ago—one dedicated to using the iStride at home—but this was by far the toughest paper to place.

"The paper was initially rejected because one of the early reviewers stated that the gait speed improvement was way beyond what had previously been reported in the literature," Reed said. "Showing the reviewers videos of the subjects walking before and after therapy helped them understand the dramatic difference."

"Moterum is shifting the paradigm of stroke. Hope is a powerful tool," said Lauren S. Rashford, president of Moterum Technologies. "Providing personalized journeys and meeting each patient where they are at allows us to create a relationship that has been proven to instill and expand hope in each life."

More information: Brianne Darcy et al, One-year retention of gait speed improvement in stroke survivors after treatment with a wearable home-use gait device, Frontiers in Neurology (2024). DOI: 10.3389/fneur.2023.1089083

Journal information: Frontiers in Neurology

Provided by University of South Florida

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Explore further

Immediate effect of shoe raise on unaffected side in gait of poststroke hemiparesis

But are these other shoes better? WHOM do we go to to get that simple question answered? With NO leadership and NO strategy, NOTHING EVER GETS SOLVED IN STROKE!

• unstable shoes (6 posts to May 2012)

• shoes (20 posts to May 2013)

• Laser shoes (1 post to December 2017)

• jump shoes (1 post to August 2014)

• instrumented shoes (2 posts to May 2016)

 Immediate effect of shoe raise on unaffected side in gait of poststroke hemiparesis

PURPOSE: 

The purpose of the study was to observe the immediate changes on gait speed and qualitative gait parameters with and without the use of additional shoe raise on unaffected lower limb in poststroke hemiparetic patients.  

MATERIALS AND METHODS: 

Thirty-one participants with chronic stroke from SBB College of Physiotherapy, of either gender (40–70 years), able to walk 20 m with or without external aids were included in the study by purposive sampling. Patients with severe spasticity, fixed contractures, and audio, visual, or perceptual impairments were excluded from the study.(So cherry picking your better patients. There is this goal of 'leave no survivor behind'. You failed that goal!)An observational study was conducted where patients were tested under two conditions – pre- and postinserting a 1.5 cm shoe raise on the unaffected limb. Patients explained the nature of the study, and a 10-m walk test was performed along with video recording from anterior, posterior, and lateral views, which were later analyzed using Wisconsin Gait Scale (WGS).  

RESULTS: 

The mean age was 52.903 ± 8.423 and poststroke duration was 28.806 ± 1.836. Out of 31 patients, 20 were male and 11 female; 17 patients had right-sided hemiparesis, in 14 left-sided hemiparesis, out of which 26 were chronic and 5 were acute poststroke patients. Values for pre- and postscores of WGS were Z = −4.88, P = 0.000, and scores for speed were Z = −4.89, P = 0.000.  

CONCLUSION: From this study, it has been concluded that shoe raising, given on unaffected lower limb to hemiparetic patients, has shown a significant difference in pre- and postgait qualitative parameters and speed in both males and females of age group 40–70 years.

Neeti Jariwala, Shraddha Diwan, Nehal Shah  Department of Neurorehabilitation, SBB College of Physiotherapy, Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India Correspondence Address: Neeti Jariwala, B-104 Sukh Tower, Mirambica Road, Naranpura, Ahmedabad - 380 013, Gujarat India Source of Support: None, Conflict of Interest: None DOI: 10.4103/pjiap.pjiap_44_22

Balancing failure trying put on shoes standing up.

 This was easy before, even if I had to hop around a bit to stay upright. I'm not sure that I could even slip into Zeba shoes standing up.

I pretty much failed the Berg Balance Scale all the time because I could never stand long enough one-legged on my affected side. It says it is objective but nothing about it is objective. I thought this test was totally fucking worthless, because it was tested all the time and I NEVER received ANY PROTOCOLS to address the balance issues.

Stroke patients relearning how to walk with peculiar shoe

What other shoes is your hospital using in your walking rehab?

Ask your stroke hospital which shoes they have already tested and which one of these they like. No testing, you have an incompetent stroke hospital doing nothing for stroke survivors. That should get me lots of angry replies.

• shoes (18)
• Laser shoes (1)
• jump shoes (1)
• instrumented shoes (2)

 

Stroke patients relearning how to walk with peculiar shoe

A therapeutic shoe engineered to improve stroke recovery is proving successful and expected to hit the market by the end of the year. Clinical trials have been completed on the U.S. patented iStride device, which is licensed by Moterum LLC, a startup company located in the University of South Florida (USF) Research Park. Its results were just published in the Journal of NeuroEngineering and Rehabilitation.

Stroke sufferers experience muscle weakness or partial paralysis on one side of the body, which greatly impacts how they walk, known as gait. Gait asymmetry is associated with poor balance, a major cause of degenerative issues that make individuals more susceptible to falls and injuries.
The iStride device is strapped over the shoe of the good leg and generates a backwards motion, exaggerating the existing step, making it harder to walk while wearing the shoe. The awkward movement strengthens the stroke-impacted leg, allowing gait to become more symmetrical once the shoe is removed. The impaired foot wears a matching shoe that remains stationary.
"The backward motion of the shoe is generated passively by redirecting the wearer's downward force during stance phase. Since the motion is generated by the wearer's force, the person is in control, which allows easier adaptation to the motion," said developer Kyle Reed, PhD, associate professor of mechanical engineering at USF. "Unlike many of the existing gait rehabilitation devices, this device is passive, portable, wearable and does not require any external energy."
"The importance of over-ground gait training has been emphasized in previous studies," said Seok Hun Kim, PT, PhD, research collaborator and associate professor in the School of Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation Sciences in the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine. "However, the training options available after stroke are very limited. This novel device allows gait rehabilitation in the environment of daily activities."
The trial included six people between ages 57 and 74 who suffered a cerebral stroke at least one-year prior to the study. They all had asymmetry large enough to impact their walking ability. Each received twelve, 30-minute gait training sessions for four weeks. With guidance from a physical therapist, the patients' gait symmetry and functional walking were measured using the ProtoKinetics Zeno Walkway system in the Human Functional Performance Laboratory at USF.
All participants improved their gait's symmetry and speed. That includes how long it takes to stand up from a sitting position and walk, as well as how long it takes to walk to a specific location and distance traveled within six minutes. Four improved the percentage of time spent in a gait cycle with both feet simultaneously planted on the ground, known as double limb support. As far as the other two that didn't improve, one started the study with severe impairment, while the other was highly functional. It's also important to note that three participants joined the study limited to walking in their homes. Following the trial, two of them could successfully navigate public venues.
Reed and Kim compared their method to a previous study conducted on split-belt treadmill training (SBT), which is used to help stroke patients improve their gait. The equipment allows the legs to move at different speeds, forcing the patient to compensate in order to remain on the treadmill. While the SBT improves certain aspects of gait, unlike the iStride, it doesn't strengthen double limb support. That research concluded only about 60 percent of patients trained on the SBT corrected their gait when walking in a normal environment.
Walking is context dependent where visual cues impact how quickly one tries to move, and in what direction. The iStride allows patients to adjust accordingly. Movement on a treadmill is predictable and provides individuals a static scene.
Since patients are often disappointed in their progress after being discharged from rehabilitation, the iStride's portability allows patients to relearn to walk in a typical setting more often and for a longer duration. Reed and his collaborators are now working on a home-based clinical trial with 21 participants and expects to publish results within the next year. He recently received a Fulbright scholarship to conduct research at Hong Kong Polytechnic University. He's working in the rehabilitation sciences and biomedical engineering departments throughout the 2019-2020 academic year.

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Story Source:
Materials provided by University of South Florida. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.

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Journal Reference:

1. Seok Hun Kim, David E. Huizenga, Ismet Handzic, Rebecca Edgeworth Ditwiler, Matthew Lazinski, Tyagi Ramakrishnan, Andrea Bozeman, David Z. Rose, Kyle B. Reed. Relearning functional and symmetric walking after stroke using a wearable device: a feasibility study. Journal of NeuroEngineering and Rehabilitation, 2019; 16 (1) DOI: 10.1186/s12984-019-0569-x

YOUR HEALTH: How a new shoe could give the boot to a stroke victim’s limp

But will it work for my problems? 

Foot angles outward due to spasticity?  

Lower leg does not swing freely due to spasticity?

YOUR HEALTH: How a new shoe could give the boot to a stroke victim’s limp

Posted 6:45 pm, March 25, 2019, by Jim Mertens, Updated at 06:49PM, March 25, 2019

 

Video at link.

TAMPA, Florida – In the United States every year close to 800,000 people suffer a stroke.
Many are left with a dragging foot.
But doctors are working on an inexpensive way to fix their footing.
"I used to walk three to five miles a day before my stroke and it would be nice if I could just walk a half a mile."
Well Diane Hintz is on the right track.  She's making strides with this patented portable shoe.
It's called the Moterum I Stride device.  It was invented at USF in Tampa.
These doctors have been working for years to get it just right.  And they're almost to the finish line.
"It took a lot of math," said mechanical engineer Kyle Reed.
"A lot of engineering and quite a few different prototypes to get it to work just right."
Many stroke patients are left with a limp because of damage to their central nervous system.  This shoe helps rewire the brain so they can correct their gait.
Doctors say it's more effective and cheaper than the typical split belt treadmill treatment(Does your stroke hospital have this AND the protocol to go with it?) and patients can even bring this home.
"The I-Stride device causes one foot to move backwards while they're walking and this helps to exaggerate one of the feet so it becomes more asymmetric especially when they take it off they have a corrected gait where it's more symmetric afterwards," explained Reed.
"Don't forget the patient is wearing the shoe on their good side," said University of Southern Florida Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation professor Seok Hun Kim.
The shoe is worn on the good side so it forces the bad side to compensate for the irregular walking pattern.
So far the study shows that within four weeks patients can feel a difference.
"The hope is that if you keep doing this every day you train you get a little more equalized in your step length and you're going to start walking faster," said Reed.

NEW TECHNOLOGY: Engineer Kyle Reed said the iStride device causes one foot to go backwards and this exaggerates your existing asymmetry so that you have to compensate for it.   And so you get a little bit less of asymmetry.   When you go back to walking without the iStride device then that little bit of asymmetry is gone because you've already started compensating for it so now you have a more symmetric walking pattern.

USF doctors say typical stroke rehabilitation uses a split belt treadmill.   It is expensive and has to be done in an office setting with trained staff to monitor sessions.
The I Stride could be available to the public in a year.

Health Beat: Stroke shoe retrains the brain

Interesting that this is put on the good foot, similar to this? This probably would do nothing for me, the spasticity turning my foot out and lack of a free swinging lower leg wouldn't be corrected  by this.

Exercising the good side to recover the 'bad' side.

 

Health Beat: Stroke shoe retrains the brain

By:

• Melanie Falcon

Posted: Mar 19, 2019 04:39 PM EDT

Updated: Mar 19, 2019 04:39 PM EDT

TAMPA, Fla. - Diane Hintz is on the right track.

"I used to walk three to five miles a day before my stroke. and it would be nice if I could just walk a half a mile," she said.
Hintz is making strides with a patented portable shoe. It's called the Moterum iStride device. It was invented at the University of South Florida in Tampa. Doctors have been working for years to get it just right, and they're almost to the finish line.
"It took a lot of math, a lot of engineering and quite a few different prototypes to get it to work just right," said Kyle Reed, an associate professor of mechanical engineering at USF.
Many stroke patients are left with a limp because of damage to their central nervous system. The shoe helps rewire the brain so they can correct their gait. Doctors said it's more effective and cheaper than the typical split belt treadmill treatment, and patients can even take it home.
"The iStride device causes one foot to move backwards while they're walking and this helps to exaggerate one of the feet so it becomes more asymmetric, especially when they take it off," Reed continued. "They have a corrected gait where it's more symmetric afterwards."
"Don't forget the patient is wearing the shoe on their good side," said Seok Hun Kim, an associate professor of physical therapy and rehabilitation sciences at USF.

Toe dragging

I normally would have said I don't drag my affected toe as I walk. Obviously wrong, I do notice going down hill it doesn't clear very well. This is an Italian shoe I bought in Madrid 1.5 years ago. It just means I can replace this shoe as I travel to Portugal in October.

Laser shoes prevent 'freezing' in Parkinson patients

Would these possibly be helpful for stroke survivors? We'll never know.
https://www.alphagalileo.org/ViewItem.aspx?ItemId=182244&CultureCode=en

21 December 2017 Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Centre

Freezing of gait, an absence of forward progression of the feet despite the intention to walk, is a debilitating symptom of Parkinson's disease. Laser shoes that project a line on the floor to the rhythm of the footsteps help trigger the person to walk. The shoes benefit the wearer significantly, according to research by the University of Twente and Radboud university medical center, which will be published on December 20 in Neurology, the scientific journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
Walking problems are common and very disabling in Parkinson’s disease. In particular, freezing of gait is a severe symptom which generally develops in more advanced stages. It can last seconds to minutes and is generally triggered by the stress of an unfamiliar environment or when medication wears off. Because the foot remains glued to the floor but the upper body continues moving forward, it can cause the person to lose her balance and fall.
Lines on the floor
Parkinson patient experience a unique phenomenon. By consciously looking at objects on the floor, such as the lines from a zebra crossing (‘visual cues’), and stepping over them, they are able to overcome their blockages during walking. This activates other circuits in the brain, hereby releasing the blockages and allowing the person to continue walking. This is why patients often make use of floor tiles at home. With the laser shoes, these useful cues can be continuously applied in everyday life, to walk better and safer. The principle behind the laser shoes is simple: upon foot contact, the left shoe projects a line on the floor in front of the right foot. The patient steps over or towards the line, which activates the laser on the right shoe, and so on (see videos below the text).
Beneficial effect
The present research study shows a beneficial effect in a large group of patients. The number of 'freezing' episodes was reduced by 46% with the use of the shoes. The duration of these episodes was also divided by two. Both effects were strongest in patients while they had not taken their medication yet. This is typically when patients experience the most problems with walking. But an improvement was also seen after the patients had been taking their medication.
Daily environment
"Our tests were administered in a controlled lab setting with and without medication," says researcher Murielle Ferraye. " Further research in their everyday environment is necessary. We plan on testing this using laser shoes that in the meantime came on the market."
Activating the laser
Of the nineteen patients who tested the shoes, the majority would be happy to use them. The patients did not seem to mind that the laser was activated for each single step.  "Ideally, the laser should only be activated once the blockage is detected, but we're not quite there yet," says Ferraye. "Freezing is a very complex phenomenon."
Murielle Ferraye, who developed the laser shoes, conducted her study at the Donders Institute at Radboud university medical center and the MIRA Institute for Biomedical Technology and Technological Medicine at the University of Twente.
Videos
Video 1: Patient walking with laser shoes turned off (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=22bzNDq4AJA)
Video 2: PAtient walking, but now with laser shoes turned on (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GT5QHX07HrY)
https://www.radboudumc.nl/en/news-items/2017/laserschoen-voorkomt-blokkade-bij-parkinson

Attached files

• Figure1: laser shoes
  

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• Full bibliographic informationThe laser shoes
  
  Claudia Barthel, Jorik Nonnekes, Milou van Helvert, Renée Haan, Arno Janssen, Arnaud Delval, Vivian Weerdesteyn, Bettina Debû, Richard van Wezel, Bastiaan R. Bloem, Murielle U. Ferraye
  
  Neurology Dec 2017, 10.1212/WNL.0000000000004795; DOI: 10.1212/WNL.0000000000004795

Early study shows shoe attachment can help stroke patients improve their gait

But would these bouncy shoes be even better? Since my stroke I have no push-off on walking from my affected leg, no clue how to get there.

Shoes that bounce - KANGOO aerobics

The latest here:

 Early study shows shoe attachment can help stroke patients improve their gait

A new device created at the University of South Florida – and including a cross-disciplinary team of experts from USF engineering, physical therapy and neurology – is showing early promise for helping correct the signature limp experienced by many stroke survivors.

Called the Gait Enhancing Mobile Shoe (GEMS), the shoe attachment is the result of multidisciplinary work and expertise in USF's engineering, physical therapy, and neurology programs.
In addition to offering stroke patients good outcomes for improving their gait and balance, a preliminary study is showing the shoe also provides several advantages over a current stroke rehabilitation tool – the split-belt treadmill – including lower cost, greater convenience, and mobility.
"This is early in the process but we're seeing the benefits we expected so it's very promising," said Kyle Reed, PhD, associate professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering in the USF College of Engineering and principal investigator for the preliminary study on GEMS.
"We really want to help people who are limited in their walking ability to improve enough so they can return to the activities of their daily lives. The long-term hope is that this shoe attachment could be less expensive and safe enough that, once trained on how to use it, patients could take the GEMS home for therapy."

Credit: University of South Florida

Reed developed the GEMS shoe along with Seok Hun Kim, PT, PhD, associate professor in the School of Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation Sciences in the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine and co-principal investigator for the GEMS study. In 2010, Dr. Reed received funding from the National Institutes of Health to conduct a clinical trial of a small group of stroke survivors trying the GEMS; the study is not for severe stroke survivors, but mild to moderate stroke survivors.
The study also includes USF Health stroke expert David Z. Rose, MD, associate professor in the Department of Neurology in the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine, who said he sees the GEMS as a great potential option for stroke patients to improve their mobility.

"Many stroke patients are devastated that their ability to walk on their own can be so limited, even around their own homes," Dr. Rose said. "Early data for the GEMS is very promising and the next phases of study will really help us see its true potential."
Many stroke patients develop an asymmetric gait because of damage to their central nervous system, resulting in difficulty moving their affected leg – they can't extend their foot backward enough, which prevents natural pushing off into the swing phase experienced in an unaffected walk.

Credit: University of South Florida

Typical stroke rehabilitation to improve gait symmetry involves using a split-belt treadmill that offers two independent belts operating at different speeds to exaggerate the asymmetry of the patient's gait.
But an odd yet natural thing happens when patients leave the treadmill – their brain returns to a fixed-floor state and they regress, with many finding it difficult to recreate the gait correction on solid ground, a regression that is called an after effect.
While generally successful for improving stroke patients' gaits, the split-belt treadmill is expensive, requires a dedicated space to house and a qualified staff to monitor sessions and, because of after effect, can require more time for patients to master the correction, said Seok Hun Kim, PT, PhD, associate professor in the School of Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation Sciences in the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine.
"The GEMS allows movement across any safe surface, thus 'rewiring' the brain to learn the new compensation technique for everyday walking, not just for when they are on the treadmill," Dr. Kim said.

Credit: University of South Florida

"The GEMS is generally worn on the unaffected side, helping the patient use their affected side to compensate for the irregular footing."
While early results of this preliminary study are showing strong support for a successful approach to improving the gait of stroke patients, more detailed study with more patients will be necessary. Dr. Kim said a full study, one that compares to the current approach with the split-belt treadmill, is critical before clinicians adjust their approach.

Explore further: American Stroke Association offers new stroke rehabilitation toolkits

Provided by: University of South Florida

shoes in Spain

Since I'm with three women shoe stores were regularly visited, I bought two pair, The Geox ones have elastic laces, no tying needed. They were fairly tight and the plastic shoe horn from the first hotel was not strong enough, but fingers worked well enough. I wore them the last 10 days of the trip. Threw out the two pairs of shoes I brought since my luggage did not have enough room, had to have one of the women carry back my bottle of wine I was bringing back.

Geox from Italy

Callaghan from Spain

Nike's Self-Lacing Sneakers Are Not Exactly Affordable

I bet your insurance will never pay for these when they can just tell you to buy$1.99 curly laces and they won't even reimburse you for that.
http://www.esquire.com/style/news/a50718/nike-hyperadapt-price/

One of the most exciting developments in footwear this year is the appearance of auto-lacing. The technology of a self-lacing shoe was first imagined up by Tinker Hatfield, the legendary sneaker designer who brought us most of the first dozen Air Jordans. He fabricated the idea for Back to the Future: Part II, predicting future footwear that laced itself. The shoe became the Nike Mag, a sneaker so far ahead of its time that none but the dreamers ever thought that it would be possible. It's true that technology develops at exponential rates, but it was still a shock when Nike filed patents for auto-lacing in 2010. Something that seemed impossible just two decades years earlier was suddenly looking like a realistic possibility.

Then nothing happened.

There were a few rumors here and there, but nothing materialized. Filing patents for impractical technology happens all the time; it's standard corporate development defense. But the hope of the masses was that this was more than a shrewd corporate move. The following year Nike released a version of the Mag via auction as a way to raise money for the Michael J. Fox Foundation. It quickly became a hot commodity, but it didn't have auto-lacing. Fans were sure they would get a piece of history. They didn't.

Related Story

Is the Self-Lacing Nike Air Mag Finally Here?

On May 3 of this year, it happened again. A patent was published by Nike for a "motorized footwear lacing system," everything that auto-lacing would require.

Fans were excited but did their best not to get their hopes up; they'd seen this before. Then the announcement came: Auto-lacing was real.

The technology was to be introduced on a different, previously unknown pair of shoes: the HyperAdapt 1.0, which releases on December 1. The shoes feature auto-lacing that employs a sensor under the midfoot that automatically tightens the system when you put your foot in the shoes (it also lights up). Buttons on the side of the sneakers allow you to tighten and loosen for a dialed-in fit.

The auto-lacing unit on the HyperAdapt 1.0.

Nike

Although the HyperAdapt isn't the Mag, in a way it is the Mag. The Mag was a vision of our future—something designed for a movie, but not reality. That's fine. Plenty of artists imagine impossible futures not only because of the limits of technology but because of how cultural forces change over time. The HyperAdapt was designed not as a fantasy but as a sneaker that would be wearable for the average consumer. The Nike Mag is impractical. The HyperAdapt, however, was made to be worn.

There's just one problem. It costs $720.

Nike HyperAdapt 1.0 - adaptive shoe lacing

Much more expensive that buying curly laces, but you would look cool.
http://news.nike.com/news/hyperadapt-adaptive-lacing

“Innovation at Nike is not about dreaming of tomorrow. It’s about accelerating toward it,” says Tinker Hatfield. “We’re able to anticipate the needs of athletes because we know them better than anybody. Sometimes, we deliver a reality before others have even begun to imagine it.”

Welcome the Nike HyperAdapt 1.0, the first performance vehicle for Nike’s latest platform breakthrough, adaptive lacing. The shoe translates deep research in digital, electrical and mechanical engineering into a product designed for movement. It challenges traditional understanding of fit, proposing an ultimate solution to individual idiosyncrasies in lacing and tension preference.

Functional simplicity reduces a typical athlete concern, distraction. “When you step in, your heel will hit a sensor and the system will automatically tighten,” explains Tiffany Beers, Senior Innovator, NIKE, Inc., and the project’s technical lead. “Then there are two buttons on the side to tighten and loosen. You can adjust it until it’s perfect.”

Furoshiki shoes

Wrap shoes, no lacing, maybe a solution for one-handed survivors. Assuming you don't need ankle support, but this might strengthen your ankles even faster.
https://us.vibram.com/shop/furoshiki/
Video here:
https://www.facebook.com/Insiderinventions/videos/856855147783364/

Ambulatory assessment of walking balance after stroke using instrumented shoes

And just when the hell will stroke survivors get a walking protocol? These earlier posts have obviously not done one bit of good getting to useful stroke walking analysis and rehab. With NO stroke leadership following up a stroke strategy it takes decades longer to get something useful for survivors.  With this objective analysis of walking problems maybe we can finally get stroke protocols that address those problems. Rather than the craptastic support I got from one of my PTs, 'Walk this way'.

A Personalized Self-Management Rehabilitation System with an Intelligent Shoe for Stroke Survivors: A Realist Evaluation

What does your doctor think about comparing it to these?

Sensoria™ Fitness Socks

Sensor embedded socks

The Parkinson's shoe

The latest here:

Ambulatory assessment of walking balance after stroke using instrumented shoes 

• Fokke B. van Meulen†Email author,
• Dirk Weenk,
• Jaap H. Buurke,
• Bert-Jan F. van Beijnum and
• Peter H. Veltink

†Contributed equally

Journal of NeuroEngineering and Rehabilitation201613:48

DOI: 10.1186/s12984-016-0146-5

©  van Meulen et al. 2016

Received: 14 October 2015

Accepted: 13 April 2016

Published: 19 May 2016

Abstract

Background

For optimal guidance of walking rehabilitation therapy of stroke patients in an in-home setting, a small and easy to use wearable system is needed. In this paper we present a new shoe-integrated system that quantifies walking balance during activities of daily living and is not restricted to a lab environment. Quantitative parameters were related to clinically assessed level of balance in order to assess the additional information they provide.

Methods

Data of 13 participants who suffered a stroke were recorded while walking 10 meter trials and wearing special instrumented shoes. The data from 3D force and torque sensors, 3D inertial sensors and ultrasound transducers were fused to estimate 3D (relative) position, velocity, orientation and ground reaction force of each foot. From these estimates, center of mass and base of support were derived together with a dynamic stability margin, which is the (velocity) extrapolated center of mass with respect to the front-line of the base of support in walking direction. Additionally, for each participant step lengths and stance times for both sides as well as asymmetries of these parameters were derived.

Results

Using the proposed shoe-integrated system, a complete reconstruction of the kinematics and kinetics of both feet during walking can be made. Dynamic stability margin and step length symmetry were not significantly correlated with Berg Balance Scale (BBS) score, but participants with a BBS score below 45 showed a small-positive dynamic stability margin and more asymmetrical step lengths. More affected participants, having a lower BBS score, have a lower walking speed, make smaller steps, longer stance times and have more asymmetrical stance times.

Conclusions

The proposed shoe-integrated system and data analysis methods can be used to quantify daily-life walking performance and walking balance, in an ambulatory setting without the use of a lab restricted system. The presented system provides additional insight about the balance mechanism, via parameters describing walking patterns of an individual subject. This information can be used for patient specific and objective evaluation of walking balance and a better guidance of therapies during the rehabilitation.

Trial registration

The study protocol is a subset of a larger protocol and registered in the Netherlands Trial Registry, number NTR3636.

 

Israeli Team Develops Shoe to Stop Seniors from Falling

How is your therapist making sure you don't fall? Fall prevention training? Unstable shoes? Waiting for this to come out? Not walking?

http://www.jspacenews.com/israeli-team-develop-shoe-stop-seniors-falling/

Yonathan Manor’s father was the inspiration for his latest invention, the B-Shoe, a shoe that promotes stability and stops wearers from falling.
A biomechanical engineer, Manor was concerned when his aging father, like millions of elderly persons worldwide, started struggling with mobility and began to fall a lot. So he decided to do something about it.
Working with physiotherapists and doctors, Manor theorized that when people age, they lose the ability to keep themselves stable and as a result are unable to make the minor adjustments needed to prevent falls.
Digging out the heel from an old sneaker for his first prototype, Manor joined with electronic engineer partners Abraham Stamper and Aharon Shapiro to develop a system that corrects an elderly person’s gait.
“We built prototypes of shoes that can save lives,” Stamper said of the design that has been six years in development.
He also explained how the B-Shoe works. “The main electronic mechanism is in the heel, and the rechargeable battery will be embedded in the sole along with the pressure sensors,” Stamper explained. “The sensors can detect that the center of pressure is going beyond the back line of support. If there is no reaction from the wearer for more than a few milliseconds, the shoes begin moving backwards five to seven centimeters until stability is regained.”
Manor and the B-Shoe team has already secured patent for its products in both Israel and the United States and has launched a crowd-funding campaign to get the financing needed to bring the high-tech shoe to market.
If all goes well, the B-Shoe may be available in the US and Israeli markets in as little as two years, helping to keep seniors, and others with stability issues, safer.

A Personalized Self-Management Rehabilitation System with an Intelligent Shoe for Stroke Survivors: A Realist Evaluation

What does your doctor think about comparing it to these?

Sensoria™ Fitness Socks

Sensor embedded socks

The Parkinson's shoe

 

The newest one here:

A Personalized Self-Management Rehabilitation System with an Intelligent Shoe for Stroke Survivors: A Realist Evaluation

ABSTRACT

Background: In the United Kingdom, stroke is the most significant cause of adult disability. Stroke survivors are frequently left with physical and psychological changes that can profoundly affect their functional ability, independence, and social participation. Research suggests that long-term, intense, task- and context-specific rehabilitation that is goal-oriented and environmentally enriched improves function, independence, and quality of life after a stroke. It is recommended that rehabilitation should continue until maximum recovery has been achieved. However, the increasing demand on services and financial constraints means that needs cannot be met through traditional face-to-face delivery of rehabilitation. Using a participatory design methodology, we developed an information communication technology–enhanced Personalized Self-Managed rehabilitation System (PSMrS) for stroke survivors with integrated insole sensor technology within an “intelligent shoe.”. The intervention model was based around a rehabilitation paradigm underpinned by theories of motor relearning and neuroplastic adaptation, motivational feedback, self-efficacy, and knowledge transfer. Objective: To understand the conditions under which this technology-based rehabilitation solution would most likely have an impact on the motor behavior of the user, what would work for whom, in what context, and how. We were interested in what aspects of the system would work best to facilitate the motor behavior change associated with self-managed rehabilitation and which user characteristics and circumstances of use could promote improved functional outcomes. Methods: We used a Realist Evaluation (RE) framework to evaluate the final prototype PSMrS with the assumption that the intervention consists of a series of configurations that include the Context of use, the underlying Mechanisms of change and the potential Outcomes or impacts (CMOs). We developed the CMOs from literature reviews and engagement with clinicians, users, and caregivers during a series of focus groups and home visits. These CMOs were then tested in five in-depth case studies with stroke survivors and their caregivers. Results: While two new propositions emerged, the second importantly related to the self-management aspects of the system. The study revealed that the system should also encourage independent use and the setting of personalized goals or activities. Conclusions: Information communication technology that purports to support the self-management of stroke rehabilitation should give significant consideration to the need for motivational feedback that provides quantitative, reliable, accurate, context-specific, and culturally sensitive information about the achievement of personalized goal-based activities.

Nike Unveils Shoes For People With Special Needs

Zippered shoes. If I ever get to running again I may have to get a pair.
http://www.disabilityscoop.com/2015/07/15/nike-unveils-shoes/20440/

Nike LeBron Zoom Soldier 8 FLYEASE – 3 Colorways Available Now

New athletic shoes needed

After the problems on the cruise and Barcelona I need a lot tighter shoes. For work I'm wearing one of the Italian shoes I bought last year. It has the curly laces and since my left foot is still swollen my foot doesn't slide and jostle my detached big toenail.  Part of the problem is that my current athletic shoes were bought a size larger - 13 - to accommodate an AFO

Cohen's Brain Bits: Waiting for Charcot Wearable technology may be a boon to patients with neurologic disorders.

You'll have to ask your doctor  if the Parkinson's shoe would be helpful for your walking needs.  Does your doctor even know about this or anything new at all? Has your doctor changed or created any stroke protocols in the last 10 years? If not, they should be fired.

If we don't start firing doctors for not keeping up with new research they will never change. Call the hospital president when you find such incompetent doctors. Yes I know this is not a way to ingratiate myself with the stroke medical world, but I don't want to interact with doctors that don't keep up-to-date.

Cohen's Brain Bits: Waiting for Charcot Wearable technology may be a boon to patients with neurologic disorders.

Shoe therapy

I was dragged into multiple shoe stores until I consented to   buying 3 pairs of stylish Italian leather shoes. Then was forced to throw out the ones I was wearing. We then spent the next 5 hours wandering the streets until the art gallery opened and I could buy the paintings I wanted. Luckily there were willing hands to tie the shoes. My feet were somewhat broken in by the end of the day, but no blisters.