Innovative strides: Wearable tech helps patients improve walking after stroke

Most stroke survivors experience walking issues in the first few months of recovery,  increasing their risk of falling and potentially leading to permanent disability without the right intervention. To help these patients regain a more natural walking pattern, Johns Hopkins biomedical engineering students Riya Gupta, Kelly Tamura, and Roshin Varghese have created a boot-like wearable device as their final project in the Department of Biomedical Engineering’s Honors Instrumentation course.

Called GaitPro, the device fits over the lower leg and foot to adaptively correct post-stroke foot drop, a condition that makes it difficult to lift the front of the foot because of paralysis or muscle weakness. Flexible, smart insoles inside the device detect pressure changes as the user steps, triggering a motorized mechanism below the knee that lifts the foot in real time to mimic a healthy gait.

“Existing solutions for foot drop are either rigid braces that don’t adapt to movement or complex systems that are too bulky for everyday use,” said Gupta. “Designed with a sleek pressure-sensing insole, our low-cost and compact gait correction device detects variations in pressure throughout the gait cycle to dynamically provide support as needed, enhancing the quality of life for individuals as they recover from stroke.”

One of the team’s main challenges was to design a practical, comfortable, wearable device that a patient can use every day to help ensure a full recovery.

“One of our goals is to make the device as discreet and lightweight as possible, so it will be easy to wear under the clothes and can seamlessly integrate into the daily lives of stroke survivors,” said Tamura.

What sets GaitPro apart is its ability to adjust in real time to the user’s walking pattern. The device increases motorized support when the foot is in the air and decreases support when the foot touches down,  closely mimicking the natural rhythm of walking—something many current static devices can’t do.

The battery-operated device also tracks rehabilitation progress through digital pressure maps, providing valuable data for users and therapists to evaluate treatment efficacy. The team estimates that GaitPro should improve walking within weeks to a few months, depending on the initial level of muscle weakness.

The team worked through many of the technical issues with the help of Nitish Thakor, a professor of biomedical engineering and an expert in neuroprosthetics and rehabilitation devices, and biomedical engineering PhD student Kiara Quinn.

“Our biggest challenge was striking the right balance between functionality and wearability. We went through several iterations to ensure the device was both effective in correcting foot drop and comfortable to wear through the day,” said Varghese. “Working through this challenge really brought out the importance of user-centric design in medical device development.”

The team is seeking a patent with support from Johns Hopkins Technology Ventures. In the short term, they are working on making the device’s electronics smaller and will continue testing the device with more realistic foot models that simulate foot drop.