Wearables help predict spine surgery recovery time

Researchers at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago, University of California, San Francisco and New York University are analyzing activity data from wearables to predict recovery time of spine surgery patients.

They are equipping patients with Fitbit trackers at four weeks pre-surgery and for six months afterward to receive detailed data on a patient’s steps and activity levels. The study currently focuses on patients undergoing minimally invasive spine surgeries for degenerative disease and deformity, according to a press release from Northwestern University.

“An activity monitor allows us to have an objective, numerically exact and continuous measure of activity. This can show exactly how much function a patient has regained and, critically, when and if it occurs during the recovery period,” said Zachary Smith, MD, assistant professor in Neurological Surgery at Northwestern University and a principal investigator of the study, in a statement. “This may allow us to predict when a patient will be back to 50 percent activity, 100 percent activity or even 200 percent activity in the future.”

So far, the researchers have seen promising preliminary results. “It appears that almost all patients go through a four- to six-week period where their activity is decreased. Just over a month out from many of the surgeries, they get back to their pre-operative level. Then they slowly continue to climb to new levels of activity that they could never have reached before” said Smith.