FDA clears K-D Balance app

King-Devick Technologies Inc. has received clearance from the FDA to market its new K-D Balance application.

The K-D Balance application can be used with an iPhone or iPod touch to measure a patient’s balance by assessing three key balance stance metrics, according to a press release from the company.

Using a hands-free device to stabilize the iPhone or iPod Touch, the K-T Balance application guides the wearer through the double stance, right tandem stance and left tandem stance metrics and uses the device’s internal accelerometer to detect an individual’s movements. According to the release, an objective balance score is automatically provided.

Current methods for assessing balance require only a one-legged stance. According to the release, evaluating balance can be subjective, and the single-leg stance is not consistent even in healthy patients. The K-T Balance application, however, does not allow for single-leg stance measurements and instead focuses on three balance metrics.

Various conditions can affect balance, such as concussions, orthopedic injury, vestibular dysfunction, headaches, aging, neurodegenerative diseases, medication side effects and fatigue. The K-T Balance application allows physicians, physical therapists, athletic trainers and other health care professionals to reliably analyze and compare a patient’s balance, according to the release.

“Our studies showed that K-D Balance exhibited excellent test-retest reliability and consistently provided quantitative measures of poorer balance performance in patients with neurologic conditions like concussion, neurodegenerative diseases and movement disorders compared to normal controls,” Bert Vargas, MD, neurologist and director of the Sports Neuroscience and Concussion program at the University of Texas Southwestern, said in the release.