• Posted May 15, 2025

Smartphones Aid Recovery From Broken Leg, Hip

THURSDAY, May 15, 2025 (HealthDay News) — A person’s smartphone can show how well they’ll recover from a broken leg or hip, a new study says.

Smartphone data showing a person’s mobility prior to their injury provides a clear window into their chances of quick recovery, researchers reported May 9 in the Journal of Bone & Joint Surgery.

“This novel approach has the potential to reshape how orthopedic care is delivered — empowering patients with clearer expectations, enabling earlier detection of complications, and supporting more personalized, data-driven recovery plans,” lead researcher Dr. Brian Shear, an orthopedic surgery resident at the University of Maryland Medical Center, said in a news release.

For the study, researchers recruited 107 adults who were at least six months out from surgery they needed for a fracture of their hip or leg. The participants agreed to share their Apple iPhone data, which included their step count, walking speed, step length and gait.

Results showed that a person’s pre-injury mobility strongly predicted their post-injury recovery and physical function.

For example, those who got more daily steps before their injury got in more steps during their recovery, researchers found.

Likewise, a person’s pre-injury walking speed and gait also predicted how well they’d recover, “underscoring the clinical importance of these data as recovery metrics,” researchers wrote.

Doctors and physical therapists could use people’s smartphone mobility data to craft more precise surgical treatment, recovery counseling and therapy goals, researchers concluded.

“We’re now expanding this work across additional subspecialities of orthopedics, including sports medicine, joint replacement, shoulder surgery, and foot and ankle care,” senior researcher Nathan O'Hara, an associate professor of orthopedics at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, said in a news release.

“We also have an app under development to support this work, with plans to launch multicenter trials later this year,” Shear added.

More information

The Mayo Clinic has more on recovering from a broken leg.

SOURCE: University of Maryland, news release, May 9, 2025