People with Restless Legs Syndrome often experience involuntary leg movements during sleep, leading to significant sleep disturbances. Today, symptom assessment and medication dosing rely almost entirely on patients’ subjective perception and occasional sleep-lab visits, an approach that can result in incorrect dosing and severe side effects.
The iTAS-PLMS project aims to give patients an objective, self-directed way to track their symptoms and enable therapy that is truly tailored to their individual needs. The researchers are developing a sensor-based system that objectively records nighttime movements in patients’ home environment. A companion digital application allows patients to document their sleep quality as well as their emotional and physical state. Together, this data gives medical professionals a much richer basis for adjusting each patient’s treatment individually.
By combining a holistic view of the patient’s condition with AI-based analysis methods, the project aims to generate valuable insights for new therapeutic approaches. Following the project, these results are intended to be made available through a start-up spin-off, with potential future applications extending to other movement-related conditions such as Parkinson’s disease.
AISD is a partner in this project, focusing on the sensors and AI part of this project.
More information about the project can also be found on the project website at THU: https://www.thu.de/en/university/institutes/institute-for-medical-technology-mechatronics/rls-therapy-assistant
Funding: BMFTR https://www.interaktive-technologien.de/projekte/itas-plms
01/2025 – 01/2028