New app to monitor Parkinson’s progression at home

A new smartphone app developed by researchers at UCL and Birkbeck, University of London, is enabling doctors to remotely monitor their patients' progression of Parkinson's symptoms, as reported in a new clinical trial. The findings, published in npj Parkinson's Disease , show that the app can provide clinicians with a more complete picture of a person's condition than they can get from a typically brief medical check-up. Lead researcher Dr Ashwani Jha (UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology) said: "Parkinson's disease is highly variable, as it can progress at very different rates in different people, who will not all experience the same symptoms. For that reason, people with the condition need regular check-ups, often about twice a year, so that doctors can monitor the progression of their symptoms and update their treatment plan. "One challenge of these regular check-ups is that symptoms can vary day-to-day, and even throughout the day, so getting a snapshot when a person visits the clinic will not always give the full picture of their condition. "Using an app to track symptoms from home, with multiple readings over a longer period of time, could more effectively capture fluctuations in symptoms. "Assessing physical symptoms has been particularly challenging during the COVID-19 pandemic; monitoring patients remotely could enable high-quality care while maintaining social distancing." The app, called cloudUPDRS, was developed by a team of computer scientists and clinical researchers, working alongside people with Parkinson's disease, who regularly provided feedback to ensure the app was user-friendly.