2026PAPER
Retraining gait in Parkinson's Disease via a personalised app: A study protocol
Wall C, McMeekin P, Hetherington V, Morris R, Vitorio R, Walker R, Godfrey A
PLOS One · 21(4) · e0346508
CuePD-Extend
CuePD-Extend tests a smartphone app that senses how you walk and plays personalised music cues to help retrain your steps, in your own home.
CuePD in the Home: Retraining Gait in Parkinson's Disease Via a Personalised App, known as CuePD-Extend, is a research study run by Northumbria University. It builds on the completed CuePD study by moving gait retraining out of the clinic and into everyday life.
Parkinson's disease often changes the way people walk, which can raise the risk of falls and affect quality of life. Rhythmic auditory cues, and music in particular, have been shown to help regulate walking, but cueing works best when it is tailored to the individual.
CuePD uses the motion sensors already inside a smartphone to assess walking in near real time, then delivers personalised auditory cues, including music matched to a target step rhythm, to help retrain gait. CuePD-Extend evaluates how this approach works when people use it themselves, at home, over time. The findings will show for whom, and under what conditions, personalised music cueing is most helpful.
Three steps, all on a phone the person already owns, with no extra wearables to set up.
The phone's built-in motion sensors capture and analyse walking, including step timing, cadence and rhythm, in near real time.
Music is matched to each person's target step rhythm, so the cue fits their walking rather than a generic metronome beat.
People use CuePD during everyday walking at home, building a repeatable routine that aims to support steadier gait over time.
CuePD-Extend is delivered by a multidisciplinary team at Northumbria University, spanning engineering, health economics and clinical care.
Project administration by Alan Godfrey.
Peer-reviewed and conference work behind the CuePD programme.
CuePD-Extend continues work at Northumbria University on scalable, personalised gait rehabilitation that uses everyday smartphones and music-based cueing. The study protocol and earlier publications set out the approach and the evidence behind it.
Parkinson's UK