# Leveraging Wearables to Transform Patient Recovery after Tibial Fracture Surgery

> **NIH NIH R01** · UNIVERSITY OF KENTUCKY · 2024 · $520,002

## Abstract

Over 490K Americans fracture their tibia (shinbone) yearly, and require surgery. However, patient recovery 1
year following surgery is poor and inconsistent with 2/3 of patients reporting an inability to do pre-injury leisure
activities and 1/2 still not having recovered enough to return to work. A key role of clinicians after tibial shaft
fracture surgery is to prescribe a rehabilitation exercise program that exposes each patient's tibia to increasing
forces to gradually recover the ability to do pre-injury activities. However, major limitations holding back
progress in the field are the lack of knowledge on how much tibial force patients experience during daily
activities, in their rehabilitation program throughout recovery, and how tibial force early in recovery affects
longer-term functional recovery. The overarching goal of this work is to generate the knowledgebase and tools
that will enable us to reimagine and elevate the standard of care for individuals after tibial shaft fracture
surgery, by monitoring and managing tibial bone forces in daily life. We propose to accomplish the overarching
objective through the following aims. Aim 1: Characterize tibial bone force in patients at home over the first
year following surgery. Aim 2: Create the first clinical reference guide that ranks tibial forces during commonly-
prescribed rehabilitation exercises. Aim 3: Assess if higher tibial forces during early recovery correspond with
better functional outcomes at 6- and 12-month follow up. If our hypothesis is supported then these results
would inform new clinical guidelines (target bone force thresholds) and biofeedback interventions to monitor
and promote healthy bone forces in recovery. This wearable monitoring paradigm has unparalleled potential to
be adapted to elevate care for recovery from numerous musculoskeletal disorders.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10904699
- **Project number:** 5R01AR080708-02
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF KENTUCKY
- **Principal Investigator:** Brian Noehren
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $520,002
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2023-08-10 → 2028-06-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10904699

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10904699, Leveraging Wearables to Transform Patient Recovery after Tibial Fracture Surgery (5R01AR080708-02). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-27 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10904699. Licensed CC0.

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