It is intended to trace record, process and store a variety of motor and non-motor symptoms frequently presented in Parkinson’s disease, by the long-term use of a set of wearable monitoring devices.
The system can be used at any stage of the disease after its initial diagnosis and when the patients are under medical treatment.
Movement information derived from the recordings and disease symptoms with their intensities, after appropriate data processing, are presented to the treating healthcare professional in a comprehensive way. The reports will be at the disposal and judgment of the attending healthcare professional and could allow for a better and objective assessment and understanding of the patient’s symptom condition related to the Parkinson’s disease through the Physician Tool.
The motor symptom information is accompanied by other data, collected through the smartphone of the patient/caregiver related to the patient lifestyle, cognitive condition, diet, activity, etc. The system can provide a picture of the patient health status to the healthcare professional, along with detailed information in various time periods and a friendly environment for the healthcare professional to make a change in the patient’s therapeutic plan, which can be communicated through the PDMonitor® system to the patient/caregiver.
Three actors compose the PDMonitor® ecosystem: (a) patients being at any stage of the disease, (b) caregivers – formal (nurses, volunteers) or informal (relatives, family, volunteers) – optionally appointed for the patients, (c) healthcare professionals (medical doctors – Neurologists experts in movement disorders or Neurologists or General Practitioners.
The system provides a closed loop of interaction among the patient, the caregiver and the medical doctor and at the same time provide a repository of most of the patient health status related data.
The patient can acquire the system from PD Neurotechnology Ltd and he or she could be paired to a healthcare professional who provides the follow-up in the monitoring data and the communication with the patient / caregiver through the system. The patient could use the system only after consulting a healthcare professional who is obliged to be trained, and registered to PDNeurotechnology Ltd in the use of the PDMonitor® system (certified by PD Neurotechnology Ltd. as PDMonitor® Healthcare Professional). Both, the patient and the healthcare professional are registered users of the PDMonitor® System.
Parkinson’s disease medication is actually symptom alleviation and not treatment. That means a professional’s work is evaluated by how well the patient’s symptoms are handled. This is particularly problematic when the feedback from the patient is not provided frequently. To make matters worse, PD patients at later stages could suffer from cognitive impairments, deteriorating the quality of communication between them and their treating physician. Physicians incorporating systems like the PDMonitor® into their practice could use the information provided to discover PD symptomatology that is poorly described or occult to patient or measure the effect of a change in therapy to optimize their symptoms.
CONTINUOUS MONITORING
OF PATIENT
STATUS REPORTING
MADE EASILY
PRACTICAL SELF-ASSESSMENT
OF PATIENT STATUS
COMMUNICATION WITH
DOCTOR & STATUS REPORTING
THOUGH MOBILE APP
EASY TO OPERATE
Parkinson’s disease affects a population estimated somewhere between 7-10 million worldwide. This number is expected to grow significantly by 2030. The number of trained, expert physicians simply cannot offer the care these people need.
Evidence shows that PD patients who receive treatment from a movement disorders specialist show improved health outcomes, greater adherence to quality indicators and increased patient satisfaction.
More than 40% of patients with PD did not receive any neurologist care.
As the global incidence and prevalence of PD are expected to rise, doubling between 2005 and 2030, the shortage of neurologists is predicted to increase as well, widening the gap between those in need of specialized PD care and those providing it.
Sources:
[1] Odin P, Chaudhuri KR, Volkmann J, et al. Viewpoint and practical recommendations from a movement disorder specialist panel on objective measurement in the clinical management of Parkinson’s disease. NPJ Parkinsons Dis. 2018. 4:14.
[3] Dorsey E.R., Bloem B.R. The Parkinson pandemic-a call to action. JAMA Neurol. 2018, 75, 9-10.
[4] Dall T.M., Storm M.V., Chakrabarti R., Drogan O., Keran C.M., Donofrio P.D., et al. Supply and demand analysis of the current and future US neurology workforce. Neurology. 2013, 81, 470-8.
The problem is much worse in rural areas, where access to a physician is even harder.
The PDMonitor® system was invented to offer remote and cost-efficient disease monitoring and management, extending the reach of expert physicians, and allowing them to treat more patients.
Patient cognitive impairment and over- or under-estimation of self-perceived motor symptom severity, combined with the sporadic nature of in-person clinical examination, no matter the experience of the healthcare professional, may result in inaccurate clinical assessment of motor symptoms. Objective measurement with devices similar to PDMonitor® may improve clinical assessment particularly for less experienced or less skilled clinicians.
Current pharmacological therapy is successful for a limited period. In the long term, most patients develop unmanageable motor complications that can lead to worsening of quality of life.
Evaluation of day-to-day variations is difficult when relying solely upon periodic consultations. A visit to the clinic offers face to face contact, but is, at best, a very crude and often inaccurate perspective of the patient’s real functioning at home.