OneStep Closer: Making Sense of your OneStep Data

Written by: Dr. Katie Wadland, PT, DPT, Board-Certified Geriatric Clinical Specialist and owner of Healthy Aging Physical Therapy

Last month, we introduced OneStep, the walking and movement app we now use at Healthy Aging Physical Therapy to better understand how our patients move in the real world - at home, in the community and both with and without their therapists.

While we’ve been loving the experience of using OneStep so far — and many of you have enjoyed seeing your progress in real time — we’ve also received some great feedback: “What do all these numbers actually mean?”

So this month, we’re diving deeper. This blog — along with our social media posts throughout March — will focus on breaking down exactly what we’re measuring, what the data tells us, and why it matters for your safety, strength, and independence.

Let’s break down what we’re measuring—and why it’s so powerful.

Walking Is More Than Just Speed

Most people assume walking is simply about how fast you move from point A to point B. In reality, walking is a complex, whole-body activity that reflects strength, balance, coordination, confidence, and even cognitive load.

Using OneStep, we’re able to measure multiple aspects of your walking pattern over time, giving us a clearer picture of both current safety and future risk.

The Big Picture: Your Walk Score

One of the first things you may notice in OneStep is your Walk Score.

This is a single number (out of 100) that summarizes how:

• Steady your steps are

• Consistent your rhythm is

• Smoothly you move from step to step

A higher Walk Score reflects a safer, more efficient walking pattern. While we never rely on one number alone, this score helps us track meaningful changes over time and identify when something may need attention.

Understanding other Key Walking Parameters

Walking Speed (Velocity)

Walking speed is measured in meters per second and is one of the strongest indicators of functional mobility.

• Slower speeds may reflect weakness, balance challenges, or reduced endurance

• Inconsistent speed may signal fatigue, distraction, or instability

While 1.0–1.2 m/sec is typical for healthy adults, many of our patients do very well with a goal closer to 0.8 m/sec, which is strongly correlated with safe household mobility and independence.

Cadence (Steps per Minute)

Cadence is how many steps you take per minute while walking.

• Very slow cadence can be linked to balance concerns, reduced confidence, or cautious movement

• Very fast or uneven cadence can indicate rushing or difficulty controlling speed

For many adults, a steady cadence between 100–120 steps per minute is associated with comfortable, efficient walking. In Parkinson’s Disease, we often see cadence increase which is reflective of a ‘shuffled’ or ‘freezing’ gait - and something we are quickly finding can be significantly improved with this type of in-the-moment feedback.

Velocity Variability

This measures how consistent your walking speed is from step to step.

• Low variability = steady, predictable walking

• High variability = frequent changes in speed, often linked to balance challenges, fatigue, or environmental demands

Our general goal is less than 20% variability, reflecting controlled and confident movement.

Consistency

Consistency looks at how similar each step is to the next and is scored from 0–100.

• Scores between 80–100 suggest a stable, repeatable walking pattern

• Lower scores may reflect coordination changes, balance challenges, or neurologic conditions

This is an especially valuable number to monitor for patients with Parkinson’s disease, neurologic diagnoses, or anyone at risk for falls.

Looking Deeper: Step Symmetry, Timing, and Joint Motion

Beyond the general measures above, OneStep allows us to analyze more detailed gait data about spatial and temporal parameters, and joint range of motion, including:

• Average step length

• Step length asymmetry

• Single-leg and double-leg support time

• Stance symmetry

• Step width

• Hip and femoral range of motion during walking

These details help us identify why your walking may feel uneven, where balance is breaking down, and how strength, coordination, or joint immobility may be contributing - and this level of insight allows us to be more precise, and more effective, in your treatment.

Daily Step Count: Measuring Movement to Get You Moving More

Finally, OneStep also tracks your daily step count by connecting to your phone’s internal pedometer (and can sync with devices like Apple Watch or Fitbit).

Why this matters:

• More daily steps are associated with better balance, strength, endurance, and overall health

• Even small increases in daily walking can lead to meaningful improvements

For the most accurate data, we recommend carrying your phone in your pocket during as many walks as possible. Together, we’ll determine a personalized, safe daily step goal that you can work up to slowly, to promote optimal health and wellness as you age or live with chronic disease or disability.

Why This Matters at Healthy Aging Physical Therapy

At Healthy Aging Physical Therapy, our goal is not just to help you walk more, but to help you walk better, safer, and with more confidence.

By combining expert clinical care with real-world movement data, OneStep helps us:

• Detect subtle changes earlier

• Personalize care more precisely

• Track progress that truly matters

• Support long-term independence and fall prevention

We hope this blog post helps you better understand what you’re seeing in your OneStep data and feel more confident about how we’re using it to guide your care. This is what modern, whole-person physical therapy looks like - and we’re excited to take this journey with you.

Taking ‘OneStep’ Forward Towards Better Walking and Balance Outcomes

Written By: Dr. Katie Wadland, PT, DPT, Owner: Healthy Aging Physical Therapy

At Healthy Aging Physical Therapy, our mission is to deliver the most effective, evidence-based care available. That’s why we’re excited to introduce OneStep, a cutting-edge clinical gait analysis and remote monitoring platform we’ll begin offering to patients in February 2026. OneStep transforms a patient’s smartphone into a clinical-grade motion laboratory, allowing us to capture high-fidelity gait and mobility data both in clinic and in real-world environments using the device you already carry. 

By simply putting a phone with our OneStep app in your pocket while you move around, we can:

• Quantify walking speed, stride length, cadence, movement symmetry, variability, balance indicators, and other spatiotemporal gait metrics, all critical indicators of mobility and fall risk. 

• Detect fall risk and mobility decline earlier, enabling proactive adjustments to your care plan. 

• Monitor progress objectively and continuously throughout your plan of care - entirely remotely. 

• Improve patient engagement by showing concrete progress data rather than relying solely on subjective reports. 

OneStep’s dashboard synthesizes movement into actionable clinical insights, helping your therapist tailor interventions based on quantitative evidence rather than estimation. 

Evidence and Clinical Value

The scientific community increasingly recognizes gait, and particularly gait speed, as a key indicator of health. In fact, walking speed is referred to as the “sixth vital sign” because of its strong predictive value for functional decline, fall risk, future disability, hospitalization, and even longevity. 

Beyond just “how fast” someone walks, gait characteristics reflect the integrated functioning of multiple physiological systems, including cardiovascular, neurological, and musculoskeletal health. Slower gait speed has been shown in multiple studies to correlate with increased risk of falls and adverse outcomes across older adult populations. 

But Does it Work?

Peer-reviewed research has validated that smartphone-based gait analysis applications can provide reliable alternatives to traditional motion-laboratory measures and are feasible for evaluating gait dysfunction in clinical settings. 

This supports our confidence that OneStep’s data is not just convenient,  it is clinically meaningful and can augment traditional evaluation tools to give a fuller, real-world view of your mobility and fall risk.

Furthermore, OneStep’s own performance metrics (derived from aggregated real-world use) demonstrate its value:

• The platform has analyzed tens of billions of steps and been used in mobility assessments for hundreds of thousands of patients, extracting 30+ gait and mobility parameters that clinicians rely on. 

• Organizational outcomes reported on OneStep’s platform include reductions in falls, improvements in patient engagement, and measurable time savings for clinicians, underscoring its operational as well as clinical impact. 

Why This Matters to You

Traditional gait and balance assessments that we perform with you at home remain an essential part of your care. However, they are ultimately momentary snapshots of how you walk in that specific moment, often while your therapist is standing close by, observing, cueing, or providing supervision.

For many people, this setting does not fully reflect natural walking patterns. The presence of a clinician can unintentionally change how someone moves. Increased focus, heightened awareness, performance pressure, or a sense of being “watched” can lead to walking faster, more cautiously, or with more effort than usual. In some cases, people walk better than they typically do day to day; in others, they move more stiffly or guarded than normal.

As a result, what we see during a single assessment may not capture:

• How you walk when you are relaxed and moving naturally

• How fatigue, distraction, or multitasking affect your gait

• How your walking changes throughout the day or across environments

• Early signs of decline that emerge gradually rather than suddenly

By combining in-person clinical assessments with real-world gait monitoring, we gain a more complete and accurate picture of your mobility. This allows us to tailor your care not just to how you can walk when supervised, but to how you actually walk in daily life.

OneStep extends this model by providing:

• Continuous monitoring across environments and times, capturing variations that might be missed in a single clinic visit. 

• Objective, quantifiable progress tracking instead of subjective impressions alone. 

• Early identification of decline or risk, allowing timely intervention before issues result in falls or functional loss. 

This translates into more personalized care, more meaningful outcomes, and the ability to tailor interventions with precision.

Why Gait Matters for the Populations We Serve

While gait is a powerful health indicator across the lifespan, it is especially meaningful for the populations we work with every day. Subtle changes in walking patterns often appear before patients notice functional decline — and long before a fall, injury, or loss of independence occurs.

Older Adults

In older adults, gait speed, variability, and symmetry are strongly associated with:

• Fall risk

• Frailty progression

• Loss of independence

• Hospitalization and mortality risk

Even small reductions in gait speed (as little as 0.05–0.10 m/s) have been shown in research to represent clinically meaningful decline. Conversely, measurable improvements in gait speed correlate with improved survival and functional outcomes.

By tracking gait longitudinally, OneStep allows us to:

• Identify early decline before it becomes a crisis

• Distinguish “normal aging” from actionable impairment

• Objectively measure improvement from strength, balance, and mobility interventions

• Monitor mobility over time for patients on maintenance or wellness-based plans of care

For many older adults, gait truly reflects the intersection of strength, balance, endurance, cognition, and confidence.

Parkinson’s Disease and Other Neurologic Conditions

In Parkinson’s disease, gait is one of the most sensitive indicators of disease progression and functional impact. Changes in gait often include:

• Reduced stride length

• Shuffling or festination

• Increased gait variability

• Asymmetry

• Freezing episodes

• Reduced arm swing and trunk rotation

These changes can fluctuate day-to-day based on medication timing, fatigue, and environment — meaning they are often missed during brief clinic assessments.

With OneStep, we can:

• Quantify changes in stride length, cadence, and variability over time

• Monitor real-world walking, not just “best performance”

• Identify subtle decline earlier and adjust interventions proactively

• Better individualize cueing strategies, amplitude-based training, and balance work

• Help monitor for changes in mobility related to medications, DBS and other therapies

This data supports more precise, responsive care, particularly for individuals living with Parkinson’s disease who benefit from long-term monitoring and early intervention.

Orthopedic Conditions

For patients with orthopedic concerns, including joint replacements, arthritis, spine conditions, or lower-extremity injuries, gait often compensates long before pain fully resolves.

Common gait-related issues include:

• Asymmetrical loading

• Reduced stance time on the involved limb

• Altered cadence or step length

• Persistent compensations that increase stress on other joints

OneStep allows us to:

• Objectively assess symmetry and loading patterns

• Track recovery beyond pain reduction alone

• Ensure gait normalization, not just task completion

• Identify lingering deficits that may increase reinjury risk

This helps ensure that “feeling better” also means moving better, reducing long-term wear and injury risk.

Balance and Vestibular Conditions

For patients with vestibular disorders or balance impairments, gait often reveals deficits that static balance tests do not.

Changes may include:

• Increased gait variability

• Slower walking speed

• Widened base of support

• Hesitancy or avoidance in real-world environments

Because balance confidence and sensory integration vary by environment, gait measured outside the clinic provides critical insight.

With OneStep, we can:

• Assess dynamic balance during everyday walking

• Monitor response to vestibular rehabilitation over time

• Identify sway and movement during static balance assessments

• Better tailor progression of dynamic balance and dual-task training

This allows us to move beyond symptom resolution toward true functional confidence and safety.

Want to Take ‘OneStep’ Closer to Better Walking and Balance With Us? 

Beginning in February 2026, OneStep will be integrated into care at Healthy Aging Physical Therapy as part of our comprehensive assessment and treatment planning process.

During your evaluation or reassessment, your clinician may use OneStep to help measure and better understand your walking and balance. In some cases, we may ask you to download the OneStep app to your phone and use it as a way for us to track gait and mobility data over time during your plan of care - both in person and, when appropriate, remotely.

There is no additional cost to you for using OneStep during skilled physical therapy.

You can expect your clinician to:

• Explain how OneStep works and how it uses your phone to measure walking

• Review which gait and mobility metrics are relevant to your goals

• Use this information to more precisely tailor your treatment plan and monitor progress or change over time

Interested in Gait Insights, but not a Current Patient?

If you’re interested in understanding your gait, balance, or fall risk,  but are not in need of skilled physical therapy services, you may request a Wellness Evaluation through our Wellness365 Program. This allows you to experience OneStep, receive objective gait data, and gain professional insight into your movement patterns outside of an insurance-based plan of care. We will also be rolling a third tier in our Wellness365 program to allow for long term engagement with your therapist and ongoing monitoring of your gait, mobility and exercise program so stay tuned for more details!

Gait is more than movement - it is a vital signal of health. OneStep gives us a powerful, data-driven way to listen. If you have questions or would like to learn more, we’re happy to talk with you.