Assessment of upper-limb motor recovery after stroke using a wrist-worn accelerometer digital biomarker.

Wrist-worn accelerometer-based DAPS accurately measures upper-limb motor recovery after stroke, reducing clinical trial sample sizes by over 60%.

• Why it matters: Current clinical assessments are limited in efficiency and scalability, hindering progress in stroke rehabilitation research and personalized treatment.
• What they did: Researchers analyzed approximately 23,000 hours of accelerometer data from 215 participants, including healthy and stroke survivors, to develop the digital arm performance scale (DAPS) using advanced data decomposition and modeling.
• The result: DAPS proved highly reliable and valid, enabling scalable, low-burden assessments that can accelerate clinical trials and improve monitoring of motor recovery in stroke patients.