Correct, it is not tremor at all. Tremor is something very simple. Parkinson’s disease is something much more complex. It is a disease of the brain. It is due to the destruction of nerve cells in the brain, for an unknown reason, which are slowly destroyed and die. These cells are unique, they do not reproduce, they do not replicate. Therefore, the loss of these cells causes serious problems. These cells produce a substance called dopamine, thankfully. So, we provide this substance externally with pills. This deals with several symptoms of Parkinson’s disease, which we should state do not consist merely of a simple tremor, which is what most people think, but mainly a difficulty in movement. Parkinson’s disease means great slowness in executing motions; one becomes very stiff and slow. Their movements become more difficult.
It is one of the first symptoms of the disease and has a clear biological basis. Certainly, when the diagnosis takes place, with the mere diagnosis of a chronic illness itself the patient may exhibit depression due to this problem, like any chronic patient. However, Parkinson’s disease depression has a very clear and major biological basis, as well as other problems: cognitive, namely space comprehension, cognitive functions, which are problems that grow as the disease progresses and age increases.
Exactly. The drug solution fluctuates to such a degree during the day, that the physician, in order to soundly adjust the treatment, needs to know it. Thus, the physician will move the drug doses correspondingly and regulate their intensity throughout the day, in order to achieve better treatment. In order to do that, they need to know exactly what is going on. The patients and their caregivers often try to communicate this problem over the telephone, especially during the pandemic, and that is not achievable. The physician cannot have an image of how the symptoms fluctuate throughout the day and that creates an obvious gap. So, on that basis we started this effort to create a device that can record easily and wirelessly — while also being wearable — all the symptoms of Parkinson’s disease and transmit them to the physician, wherever they may be, in a comprehensible way, so they can do their job. So, that was our long history. And now, almost 15 years later, we have the pleasure of this device being a certified medical device. Itis one of the very few — if not the only — medical device that was developed and is fully manufactured in Greece and is sent to countries all over the world.
Exactly. If the physician sees the report from the PDMonitor on his computer screen, he will understand and call his patient— often the patient calls asking — and recommend the suitable adjustment to the treatment. It is very interesting, after a specific period of time, when the patient wears the device again, so that the physician can be certain of his intervention’s results; another benefit of the device. Of course, there is no cost to the physician.