ZurichMOVE: Activity Counts

In this event, Armin Curt presented ZurichMove, which develops sensors that enable functional assessments and monitoring in health care. Aiming to improve therapies of individuals, these sensors help guide clinicians, doctors, and care-takers in clinical-decision making. In his talk, Armin Curt demonstrated with many examples how these sensors are used and how they improve the therapy of individuals. The talk ended with several questions on for example data protection, collaborations with other universities and other private agents, and availability for the general public. Overall, the audience was in awe of the meaningful contribution to society achieved by the ZurichMove team.

Abstract

While activity is a favored buzz word in the public associated with health benefits (10.000 steps a day keeps the doctor away) the true envisioned guidance for healthy subjects and even more problematic for patients is rather vague. The challenges range from technical aspects (what counts we measure, how to collect, when to record) to the appropriate targeting of subjects and their specific needs (personalized approaches). The latter becomes easily obvious when to consider the most appropriate applications and most sensitive readouts in patients suffering from diverse medical disorders (musculoskeletal, cardio-vascular, neurologic…). Being intensively monitored, however, is also inevitably breaching personal privacy and the balance between high data sensitivity and protected data privacy requires a solid understanding and high specificity of proposed recordings. ZurichMOVE accepts this multifaceted challenge and is well embedded to approach the diverse aspects within the UZH Digital Society Initiative.

Biography

Prof. Med Armin Curt undertook medical studies in his home town, qualifying as a neurologist in 1993. Since then he has specialised in research on paraplegia at the Balgrist University Hospital, except for a four year period spent in Vancouver where he held the Chair as full Professor at the University of British Columbia from 2005 to 2009. In 2009, he succeeded Volker Dietz as Medical Director and Head of the Paraplegic Centre at the Balgrist University Hospital where he also took up once again his Chair as a lecturer in paraplegics. In his field, Armin Curt is remarkable for his ability to evolve between fundamental and clinical research. He attaches great importance to clinical research, ensuring that it properly provides new learning. He is currently the lead of the European Multi-Center Study for SCI and is the Primary Investigator of the NISCI Trial.

Click here for the event overview of the Digital Society Initiative with further information on the lecture and the speaker.

General information about the lecture series

Society on the Move: The Digital Transformation of Mobility
Progress of digitalization has been affecting mobility related aspects of individuals, society, and systems. Associated promises range from the improvement of citizen well-being, economic efficiency gains, more sustainable livelihoods, to opening up new extra-terrestrial endeavours.
In this lecture series both, scholars and industry representatives will offer their perspectives on questions such as: What challenges and potential pitfalls are associated with the digitalization of mobility? Will we become too dependent on technology? How can these developments be beneficial to society?

The DSI Lecture Series was organised in cooperation with the DSI Community Mobility. The Community Mobility is a group of researchers who conduct interdisciplinary research on digital mobility projects. All lectures take place on Thursdays from 18.15-19.45 as digital events (Zoom).