Remote Assessment of Parkinson’s Disease

We are developing a novel system for quantitatively and remotely assessing the severity of Parkinson’s disease (PD) symptoms.  Since the mechanisms underlying PD are largely unknown, patients are treated symptomatically.  Currently, a movement disorders specialist (MDS) administers a test which qualitatively evaluates the severity of symptoms associated with PD.  The ultimate goal of our proposed system is to replace the qualitative nature of this test with a quantitative measurement which exhibits increased spatial resolution over the state of the art.  Additionally, we aim to increase the temporal resolution. An MDS’s time is limited and traveling is burdensome to the patient, so we want to develop our system such that the remote assessment of a patient during their daily routines becomes a possibility.  This will allow the construction of a database of patient specific data which an MDS can view in order to examine how a patient’s symptoms vary between successive doses, different activities, or subsequent assessments.  With such a system, an MDS will have a much more descriptive image of a patient’s disease state than they would otherwise obtain through a routine office visit. This will allow an MDS to make more informed decisions when prescribing treatments, which will improve clinical outcome.