Apple has filed a patent to monitor this neurodegenerative disease through a wearable device.
In the United States, there are about one million patients with Parkinson’s disease and 60,000 new cases are diagnosed each year. Symptoms of Parkinson’s disease include tremor and dyskinesia, a particular type of movement disorder that appears after chronic treatment with neuroleptic drugs such as phenothiazines and haloperidol and represents the most serious extrapyramidal side effect of this type of drug.
Apple’s patent illustrates a system that uses motion sensors to monitor motion, whose data is analyzed on the device using the Unified Parkinson’s Disease Evaluation Scale (UPDRS).
The system provides information on monitoring symptoms and severity throughout the day and provides a clinical tool to assess the patient’s response to medications. The solution helps physicians and patients in assessing symptoms that is carried out today through a series of tests and through what the patient reports.
However, self-assessment is unreliable and tests can only be performed when the patient is in a clinic. Apple’s system allows passive monitoring of dyskinesia and tremor symptoms using a wearable computer.
Apple describes the device as a generic computer and does not expressly indicate Watch. However, the illustrations in the patent clearly show the watch that would be the most suitable device for this purpose.
Digital-health 