Towards a mobile health device for Parkinson's disease
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Developing a smartphone/tablet app to assess physical, emotional and cognitive wellbeing in persons with Parkinson's disease: A pilot study
IRAS ID
164989
Contact name
Sonja Kotz
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Manchester
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, months, days
Research summary
Towards a mobile health device for Parkinson’s disease.
The aim of this project is to pilot a more complete and continuous measure of the daily functioning of people with Parkinson’s disease (PD). This will bridge the gap between the needs of individuals with PD to communicate their symptoms and the need of the clinician to understand the symptoms and their impact.
PD is a progressive degenerative disorder with initial movement symptoms followed by cognitive and emotional problems. Different treatments (drugs, exercise, cognitive) are used to control disease progression. However, the disease progresses at variable rates and with a range of deficits, which varies between individuals. Consequently, it is difficult for clinicians to monitor disease progression and to gauge treatment efficacy. In particular, infrequent visits to clinics only provide a snapshot-like measure of a patient’s wellbeing at a given time, which does not necessarily reflect their day-to-day quality of life. We therefore need an unobtrusive and low-cost solution that can track behaviour of individuals with PD over a prolonged period. Accordingly, clinicians will be better able to understand disease progression and treatment outcomes, and thus tailor specific treatments for each individual. The proposed approach is the first step towards such a solution.
Researchers from the University of Manchester will work together with 9 people with PD and 9 healthy controls who will each take part in up to 6 weeks of testing. Participants’ movements, vocal and facial communication, and cognitive functioning will be recorded daily using laptop computers and/or smartphones. Individuals will record these measures independently within their homes. With the data obtained in this pilot we will (i) use intelligent software to determine participants’ performance, (ii) relate performance with diary measures and participant feedback, and (iii) determine the feasibility of monitoring PD progression using laptop/smartphone technology to inform a larger project.
REC name
North West - Greater Manchester West Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
15/NW/0043
Date of REC Opinion
13 Feb 2015
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion