Digital Rehabilitation Using Smart Knee Brace and Multisensory Stimulation for Knee Osteoarthritis and Healthy Adults

What this Trial Is About

Knee osteoarthritis OA is a common joint disease affecting middle-aged and older adults, often causing pain, muscle weakness, reduced mobility, balance issues, and difficulty with daily activities. This research aims to develop and evaluate a digital rehabilitation program using a smart elastic knee brace with wearable sensors, biofeedback, joint-angle monitoring, multisensory stimulation, and AI-based monitoring to support personalized knee OA treatment and improve motor control and gait. The study includes several parts a two-week home-based exercise combined with electrical stimulation to test feasibility and digital monitoring reliability a 12-week randomized trial comparing digital rehabilitation with multisensory stimulation to therapist-guided home exercises a single 15-minute gait retraining session with or without synchronized quadriceps electrical stimulation and development of an AI-based personalized knee joint model using wearable sensors and functional tasks. Participants will be assigned to experimental or control groups depending on the intervention. Participants will engage in home exercises three times weekly for 40 minutes, with assessments before, during, and after the intervention at multiple time points. Evaluations include pain scales, muscle activity, motion analysis, strength, proprioception, functional tests, body composition, and knee structure via ultrasound. The study tracks adherence and performance using digital tools and questionnaires, aiming to establish the clinical utility and reliability of this smart knee brace system for knee OA management over the course of the study ending in late 2026.

Digital Course and Precision Rehabilitation for Knee Osteoarthritis and Older Adults: Integration of Multisensory Stimulation and Digital Twin Technology