BACKGROUND

Current orthopedic pre-surgery and post-surgery joint examinations, as well as follow up therapy and evaluation, involve a need for a patient to visit a facility where physicians and imaging equipment are located. The physician visit and the use of the imaging equipment increase the costs associated with joint procedures. What is needed, but not currently available, is a way for patients to get these examinations accomplished in their home environment, using equipment commonly already present in the home, or which can be purchased at relatively low cost. Further, there is a need to identify desired methods of remediation given the exam results.

SUMMARY

A platform is disclosed to allow patients and non-orthopedic medical providers (primary care physicians, personal assistants, nurse practitioners, physical therapists, athletic trainers, nurses, etc.) to have orthopedic specific knowledge and skills to diagnose and treat patient injuries and conditions. This changes patient access points in health care and develops an entirely new patient driven work flow though the health system.

Disclosed is a procedure for in home self-evaluation of a human joint and for diagnosis of joint ailments, the method including the steps of: placing an item, such as a sticker in the form of a sensor, with a known characteristic, near the joint; using a mobile imaging device, taking at least one joint image of the joint; and using the image and the known characteristic of the item to determine a joint characteristic of the joint.

Disclosed is a sensor of a U shape, resembling the shape of a bat's wings (forearm). The sensor is adapted to be placed on the skin adjacent a joint with the opening between the wings positioned to be closest to the joint.

Disclosed is a method of determining a human joint bone alignment, the method including the steps of attaching a sensor to the skin of a user near the joint, capturing an image of the sensor on the user, and then using the image and sensor characteristics to determine a bone centerline.

Disclosed is a pair of sensors adapted to be attached to skin near a joint, wherein one sensor is a master sensor housing a sensor unit, a power source, and a transmitter, and one sensor is a slave sensor spaced apart from and hard wired to the master sensor. The master sensor is separable from the slave sensor, and can be used as a physical activity monitor.

Disclosed is a method for in home therapy wherein a patient's therapy performance can be validated or encouraged by comparing their therapy exercises with a video representation of optimal performance for their unique physical therapy protocol. In practice, the patient views their own range of motion (ROM) exercise as compared to a theoretical optimum ROM video for a specific time line in their treatment protocol that has been selected by their practitioner. Sensor recorded ROM will automatically provide the patient with validation of identified exercise parameters or inform them of percentage of ROM goal achieved. The sensor data will also be analyzed to see if changes to the patient remediation are required.

The disclosed method also allows for the detection of joint alignment at the knee or knees, such as varus (bowed legs) and valgus (knock-knee) conditions.

