Accurate Monitoring of Parkinson’s Disease Symptoms With a Wearable Device During COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

Background: Accurate assessment of symptoms in Parkinson's disease (PD) is essential for optimal treatment decisions. During the past few years, different monitoring modalities have started to be used in the everyday clinical practice, mainly for the evaluation of motor symptoms. However, monitoring technologies for PD have not yet gained wide acceptance among physicians, patients, and caregivers. The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted the patients' access to healthcare, bringing to the forefront the need for wearable sensors, which provide effective remote symptoms' evaluation and follow-up. Case Report: We report two cases with PD, whose symptoms were monitored with a new wearable CEmarked system (PDMonitor ® ), enabling appropriate treatment modifications. Conclusion: Objective assessment of the patient's motor symptoms in his daily home environment is essential for an accurate monitoring in PD and enhances treatment decisions.

Barriers to home exercise for patients with Parkinson’s disease: a qualitative study

“… 45 Therefore, providing the feedback of exercise in time is important. In addition, mobile health and virtual reality technology, 52 such as exergaming, 53 social media, 33 wearable technology 54 and robot devices 55 can also be used to improve the exercise experience of PwPDs.…”

Movement disorders in COVID-19 times: impact on care in movement disorders and Parkinson disease

“…Telemedicine catalyzed the growth of wearable technologies during the pandemic [62]. Information from wearable technologies could result in quantitative data collection to provide better information about dynamic issues, such as motor and nonmotor fluctuations in Parkinson disease patients [63]. Multiple proof-of-concept studies demonstrated that wearable technologies are helpful tools to optimize patient care [38,63].…”

“…Information from wearable technologies could result in quantitative data collection to provide better information about dynamic issues, such as motor and nonmotor fluctuations in Parkinson disease patients [63]. Multiple proof-of-concept studies demonstrated that wearable technologies are helpful tools to optimize patient care [38,63]. Additionally, development of mobile apps to assess bradykinesia using finger tapping exercises and processing speed may provide a valid measure of bradykinesia [33,38].…”

A Paradigm Shift in the Management of Patients with Parkinson’s Disease

“…Smart monitoring systems and wearable solutions have emerged during the last two decades to complement the in-person medical assessment [6]. In addition, patients with Parkinson’s disease, caregivers, and healthcare professionals have started using such healthcare practices to overcome barriers in the accessibility toward health units [7]. Besides, the need for objective symptoms’ detection that could effectively direct treatment decisions cannot always be satisfied by clinical evaluation, since this is subjective to physicians’ experience and expertise, and even commonly used rating scales may be susceptible to wide inter- and intra-ratter variability [8].…”