The GAITORING project represents a new milestone in digital health solutions for orthopaedic care. This PPP Healthtech Project GAITORING benefits from the shared financial support by the Luxembourg National Research Fund (FNR) and the Ministry of the Economy.

Developed through a close collaboration between IEE, Centre Hospitalier de Luxembourg, and the Luxembourg Institute of Health, the project has led to the creation of WalkinSense: an advanced remote gait monitoring system designed to personalize treatment and enhance patient well-being.

GAITORING brings together Luxembourg’s clinical, research, and industrial expertise to pioneer innovation in healthcare sensing technology. Under the leadership of Prof. Dr. med. Romain Seil as principal medical investigator, supported by key experts such as Laurent Malisoux (PhD), Jennifer Fayad (PhD), Melanie Eckelt (PhD), and Valeria Serchi, this initiative bridges the gap between industry and medical practice to deliver real-world clinical value.

WalkinSense: Advanced Gait Monitoring

The main objective of GAITORING was to develop and validate WalkinSense, a smart insole system enabling remote monitoring of gait and movement in patients with orthopaedic conditions throughout their daily lives.

Healthcare practitioners contributed feedback to define the most vital gait metrics, which shaped the design and validation of the solution. WalkinSense underwent thorough evaluation, including laboratory testing and real-world studies, involving over 100 participants in both standard and repeat measurement sessions to confirm accuracy and reliability.

Scientific Validation and Results

Validation involved assessing the mean bias, applying Bland-Altman plots, calculating Mean Absolute Percentage Errors, and establishing intraclass correlation coefficients.

The results consistently demonstrated strong agreement with recognized biomechanical standards, confirming WalkinSense’s suitability for clinical use by delivering precise and reliable gait metrics across most parameters.

From Automotive to Healthcare: Industry Perspective

IEE leveraged its longstanding expertise in automotive sensing to address real human challenges in healthcare.

According to Human Factors & Algorithm Engineer Valeria Serchi, the goal was to extend technology from vehicles to people’s everyday environments—homes, workplaces, and clinics—using objective data to support both personal well-being and medical decision-making.

Dr. Seil highlights that digitized insoles offer crucial insights by objectively measuring patient motion patterns during various activities, such as sports, rehabilitation, or recovery from surgery. This enables clinicians to tailor treatment plans, prevent secondary injuries, and move towards more personalized and preventive orthopaedic care.

One of our company’s goals is to diversify markets and use cases in which our sensors can make a difference and bring benefits. In this spirit, the Business Development tasked with growing the potential for our Smart Health market has started to work on a medical gaming project involving ActiSense. This is a completely novel project which aims at testing nerve function and health in a playful way and could help both medical professionals and of course, patients.

What can ActiSense do in the field of Neuropathy?

A lot, but let’s go through this project that will be presented during the MEDICA fair and that focuses on this condition, which is more common than known, especially in patients suffering from diabetes.

Some four years ago, our team contacted the University in Magdeburg to discuss a project they were conducting on their own, without very performant sensors – and therefore, without satisfactory results. They developed a gaming application designed to detect peripheral neuropathy (which occurs when the nerves in the body extremities – hands, arms, feet – are damaged). IEE provided the complete ActiSense system with sensors, firmware, and electronics, based on the algorithms that the team in Magdeburg built for the application. They used our devices, and our team supported their development efforts, ultimately helping them reach their goals of running clinical trials and validate effectiveness.

The university’s research team concluded from the gaming application that all elements from visual coordination, anticipation of movement to coordinated movements with the feet and fine-tuned pressure delivery are important for successful early diagnosis. By standardizing the games, huge data sets from more than 700 participants were collected. By performing a clinical examination of the same patients, it was possible to get a better insight into the most important changes in performance. Basically, patients were able to find out within 10 minutes whether their nerve function was intact.

There are several advantages of using the gaming application. Not only is it joyful – a play – but in the long run it does not require frequent support from medical professionals. Based on the results of the interactive game and the patterns detected, a preselection is made of patients that display risks of nerve damage who might need closer medical attention.

“The final goal is to convert this into a telehealth device that can effectively be used from the comfort of a patient’s home, remote from the clinic. The findings may be sent straight to the doctor’s cabinet, thus saving commuting effort and waiting time,” says Tobias Meyer, Business Development Manager at IEE.

Some interesting facts:

• About 40% of all patients diagnosed with diabetes develop peripheral neuropathy.
• The risk of late detection is high, especially when typical alarm signs (such as pain in the feet) are missing. As a result, tissue damage of the feet may develop.
• Studies from the university showed that ˃ 50% of patients with diabetes are not aware of their peripheral nerve function deficits (neuropathy). Not being aware means they cannot get the necessary help.
• ˃500 patients have already been tested in clinical settings and were very satisfied with the collaboration.

We are looking for partnerships which can support in the process of certification as a medical device, so that such solutions can be released to a broader market. We continue to be active in this medical field and combine forces with health care professionals. We keep on validating business opportunities towards digital health care solutions. MEDICA is a unique opportunity to present our achievements. This will raise awareness of the capabilities of products such as ActiSense in the field of Neuropathy.