Wearable technology is breakthrough for Parkinson’s

By Guest Column Israel21c —— Bio and Archives December 10, 2014

Comments | Print This | Subscribe | Email Us

A new wearable technology that constantly detects mobility patterns in people with Parkinson’s disease, analyzes that data and transmits it to the cloud, is set to fuel a worldwide breakthrough for Parkinson’s researchers and physicians, as well as for wearers of the device.

And the advanced analytics platform that makes it possible was designed by big-data scientists at Intel Israel. The technology has so far been tested by a few dozen patients for usability and accuracy at leading hospitals in Massachusetts, New York City and Tel Aviv. In 2015, hundreds of Parkinson’s patients in The Netherlands will participate in a larger clinical trial, and possibly another 1,000 in the United States. The ability to unobtrusively collect and analyze a large amount of data on measurable features of Parkinson’s — such as slowness of movement, tremor and sleep quality — could give researchers new insight into the clinical progression of the disease, help them detect patterns and perhaps make new discoveries. More...