Yet the treatment and monitoring of the neurological disease seems many decades behind. Clinicians typically gauge the severity of the disease using s

The new tech that could improve care for Parkinson’s patients

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2024-09-22 02:30:04

Yet the treatment and monitoring of the neurological disease seems many decades behind. Clinicians typically gauge the severity of the disease using subjective rating scales, and a shortage of doctors trained to treat Parkinson's means that people can go months -- or years -- between clinic visits.

This leaves patients in a troubling spot, often unsure how quickly their disease is progressing and whether they are responding appropriately to medications.

Now, Stanford Medicine researchers have developed a simple, portable device paired with a smartphone-connected platform that patients can use at home to measure the severity of their Parkinson's disease symptoms in a quantitative and reproducible way. It translates tiny details about finger presses into data that clinicians can use to guide Parkinson's treatments remotely.

Helen Bronte-Stewart, MD MSE, the John E. Cahill Family Professor and a professor of neurology and neurosciences, led the work, which was described in two recent papers and received funding to further develop the technology from a series of awards -- a Neuroscience: Translate grant from the Wu Tsai Neuroscience Institute, a placement in the Fogarty Innovation program, and a Stanford Medicine Catalyst award.