ArticleBMJ open2025
Development of a smart walker for clinical settings: a protocol of an exploratory mixed-methods study.
Article in BMJ open, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
2 citing papers in PubMed.
- A Smart Wheeled Walker With Integrated Physiological Monitoring to Improve Mobility in Older Adults: Randomized Crossover Trial.JMIR aging · 2026Trial
- Functions and Sensors of Smart Walkers From 2015 to 2024: Scoping Review.JMIR rehabilitation and assistive technologies · 2026Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
introductionMobilisation and mobility in clinical settings are essential to the recovery process after surgery and trauma-related hospital admission. In addition to personal support from physiotherapists and nursing staff, aids such as walkers are applied. Walkers equipped with smart features have the potential to benefit geriatric patients by facilitating routine clinical workflows and, where appropriate, by providing health professionals with information on gait patterns and vital parameters.The overarching goal of this project is to develop an innovative smart walker for clinical use, guided by three objectives: (a) Identify the feature requirements of the smart walker from the perspectives of patients and health professionals, (b) Co-design the smart walker using a user-centred approach involving older patients, health professionals and clinical engineers and (c) Pilot-test the smart walker in real time with older patients admitted to German clinics. METHODS AND ANALYSIS: We will employ a three-phased exploratory sequential mixed-methods approach in this project. Phase I explores potentially useful characteristics of a smart walker via a scoping literature review (part 1 of phase I) and a qualitative interview and observational study, including questionnaires on sociodemographic data and technology readiness, involving four to six patients and four to eight nurses and physiotherapists (part 2 of phase I). Phase II focuses on developing and validating a smart walker through a user experience design, with at least three iterative test cycles involving a minimum of three asymptomatic participants and three to seven potential users in each cycle. Phase III comprises a pilot study conducted at a University Hospital in Germany involving at least twelve patients. Data integration takes a data-building approach, combining qualitative and quantitative results in the final analysis to generate a comprehensive understanding and to create and refine insights into the feature needs and use of a smart walker by patients. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: The study was approved by the Ethics Committee of University Medicine Halle, Germany (Approval No. 2025-032; date of approval: 03/04/2025). Study results will be disseminated through peer-reviewed journals and conferences. PROSPERO REGISTRATION NUMBER: The study protocol was registered at the Open Science Framework Platform (OSF, register number: 10.17605/OSF.IO/CTPF4).
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