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PhD studentship: Understanding fall risk in real-world settings for people with Parkinson’s disease (U-Fall PD)

Hosted by Northumbria University’s Faculty of Engineering and Environment.

This project is co-funded by the NIHR Applied Research Collaboration North East and North Cumbria, and Northumbria University.

About the project 

Parkinson’s disease (PD) affects approx. 1 in 500 people in the UK with prevalence growing. PD causes motor and non-motor symptoms, including difficulties with gait/walking and eye-movement or visual issues. This greatly impacts mobility and leads to falls resulting in reduced quality of life.

Falls result from impairment in gait and cognitive ability with neurological decline. Existing clinical approaches to falls risk determination are subjective, but modern technology (including use of artificial intelligence, AI) could provide a more detailed understanding of individual patients falls risk.

This project will investigate AI based approaches and building computer models to categorise free-living environments and to analyse habitual environments and better determine personalised levels of fall risk in PD and augment existing/traditional approaches.

Closing date: 31 August 2021. Start date 1 October 2021

Find out more and apply