Accuracy and Acceptability of Wearable Motion Tracking for Inpatient Monitoring Using Smartwatches
Chaiyawan Auepanwiriyakul, Sigourney Waibel, Joanna Songa, Paul Bentley, A. Aldo Faisal
Abstract
Inertial Measurement Units (IMUs) within an everyday consumer smartwatch offer a convenient and low-cost method to monitor the natural behaviour of hospital patients. However, their accuracy at quantifying limb motion, and clinical acceptability, have not yet been demonstrated. To this end we conducted a two-stage study: First, we compared the inertial accuracy of wrist-worn IMUs, both research-grade (Xsens MTw Awinda, and Axivity AX3) and consumer-grade (Apple Watch Series 3 and 5), and optical motion tracking (OptiTrack). Given the moderate to strong performance of the consumer-grade sensors, we then evaluated this sensor and surveyed the experiences and attitudes of hospital patients (N = 44) and staff (N = 15) following a clinical test in which patients wore smartwatches for 1.5–24 h in the second study. Results indicate that for acceleration, Xsens is more accurate than the Apple Series 5 and 3 smartwatches and Axivity AX3 (RMSE 1.66 ± 0.12 m·s−2; R2 0.78 ± 0.02; RMSE 2.29 ± 0.09 m·s−2; R2 0.56 ± 0.01; RMSE 2.14 ± 0.09 m·s−2; R2 0.49 ± 0.02; RMSE 4.12 ± 0.18 m·s−2; R2 0.34 ± 0.01 respectively). For angular velocity, Series 5 and 3 smartwatches achieved similar performances against Xsens with RMSE 0.22 ± 0.02 rad·s−1; R2 0.99 ± 0.00; and RMSE 0.18 ± 0.01 rad·s−1; R2 1.00± SE 0.00, respectively. Surveys indicated that in-patients and healthcare professionals strongly agreed that wearable motion sensors are easy to use, comfortable, unobtrusive, suitable for long-term use, and do not cause anxiety or limit daily activities. Our results suggest that consumer smartwatches achieved moderate to strong levels of accuracy compared to laboratory gold-standard and are acceptable for pervasive monitoring of motion/behaviour within hospital settings.