Traditional Clinical Evaluation of Gait and Reflex Response by Ordinal Scale

The original technique for quantifying the rehabilitation status of a patient involves the observation by an expert clinician. Based on this expert observation the clinician applies a subjective interpretation to a series of ordinal scale rankings. Examples of scenarios for applying the ordinal scale methodology involve the evaluation of the tendon reflex response and gait. More sophisticated quantification techniques that are derived from the ordinal scale approach pertain to the evaluation of neuro-degenerative diseases, such as Friedreich’s ataxia. Intuitively these ordinal scale techniques are subjective, which causes their reliability to be a subject of controversy. Furthermore, the level of experience of the evaluating clinician can significantly influence the reliability of the evaluation. An alternative solution would be the incorporation of wearable and wireless systems, such smartphones and portable media devices, for quantifying human movement, such as gait and reflex response.