# Development of a mobile medical app for diagnosis and treatment of benign paroxysmal positional vertigo (BPPV)

> **NIH VA I21** · JAMES H QUILLEN VA MEDICAL CENTER · 2021 · —

## Abstract

Benign Paroxysmal Positional Vertigo (BPPV) is the most common cause of vestibular dysfunction,
characterized by brief but disabling vertigo associated with specific head positions (e.g., looking up or rolling
over in bed). BPPV can be treated effectively with the Canalith Repositioning Treatment (CRT) which uses a
series of head positions to move particles (displaced from the otolith organs into the semicircular canals) out of
the semicircular canals. Nevertheless, access to care for many patients with BPPV is poor because the
treatment is underused or mis-used by frontline healthcare providers who are not trained to recognize and treat
BPPV. Successful diagnosis and treatment of BPPV requires accurate identification of eye movements
(nystagmus) during the test procedure and accurate positioning of the patient's head during testing and
treatment.
The purpose of this project is to test the hypothesis that a smartphone camera and inertial technology can be
used to accurately diagnose and treat BPPV. We propose four specific aims: (1) develop a mobile medical
application (app) for automated diagnosis and guided treatment of BPPV, (2) determine the accuracy of the
app for automated diagnosis of BPPV, (3) determine the usability of the app for automated diagnosis and
guided treatment of BPPV, and (4) determine the effectiveness of the app for guided treatment of BPPV.
For Aim 1, three tasks are proposed: (1) development of software to record and analyze eye and head
movements to diagnose and guide treatment of BPPV, (2) development of headgear to couple the smartphone
to the face for accurate eye and head movement recording, and (3) development of tutorial videos to guide the
clinician in the proper execution of the Dix-Hallpike maneuver and treatment procedure. The development of
the app will be an iterative process in which the engineers will work closely with the expert clinicians who will
provide feedback to revise and refine the software algorithm, headgear device, and tutorial videos prior to pilot
testing of the app.
To determine the accuracy of the app for automated diagnosis of BPPV (Aim 2), the app will be pilot tested on
Veterans with complaints of motion-provoked dizziness using the BPPV diagnoses of expert vestibular
clinicians as the gold standard. Eye movement recordings of patients with discordant expert versus app
diagnoses will be examined to determine the source of the errors and the app/device will be modified
accordingly. To determine the usability of the app for automated diagnosis and guided treatment of BPPV
(Aim 3), the app will be pilot tested using ten naïve users (first year students in clinical graduate programs or
medical school) and ten healthy volunteers (mock patients). Usability will be measured using the System
Usability Scale to identify the percentile rank of the product's usability and learnability, and the data will be
used to improve usability of the app prior to pilot testing on patients. To determine the effe...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10125699
- **Project number:** 1I21RX003616-01
- **Recipient organization:** JAMES H QUILLEN VA MEDICAL CENTER
- **Principal Investigator:** Faith Wurm Akin
- **Activity code:** I21 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** VA
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** —
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2020-10-01 → 2022-09-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10125699

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10125699, Development of a mobile medical app for diagnosis and treatment of benign paroxysmal positional vertigo (BPPV) (1I21RX003616-01). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10125699. Licensed CC0.

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