The Michael J Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research announced that it has teamed up with Intel to use smart watches and wearable devices made by company’s Basis division, to collect data from thousands of individuals affected by the disease.
The devices can collect more than 300 observations per second from each patient on measurable features of Parkinson’s, including slowness of movement, tremor, sleep patterns and balance. This data is then transmitted to the researchers’ computers over the internet in real time. The data will help researchers detect patterns and make new discoveries.
Data science and wearable computing hold the potential to transform our ability to capture and objectively measure patients’ actual experience of disease, with unprecedented implications for Parkinson’s drug development, diagnosis and treatment, said Todd Sherer, chief executive of The Michael J Fox Foundation.
The partnership between Michael J Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research and Intel comes after a trial of the devices earlier this year, where sixteen Parkinson’s patients and nine volunteers wore the devices during clinic visits and at home continuously over four days.
Intel and The Michael J Fox Foundation have also announced that they plan to launch a new mobile application that enables patients to report their medication intake and daily health status.
Emerging technologies can not only create a new paradigm for measurement of Parkinson’s, but as more data is made available to the medical community, it may also point to currently unidentified features of the disease that could lead to new areas of research, said Diane Bryant, senior vice president and general manager of Intel’s Data Center Group.
Parkinson’s disease is a neurodegenerative brain disease that affects one in 100 people over the age of 60. The Michael J Fox was created in 2000, after the actor was diagnosed with Parkinson’s
