Does continuous mobility measurement help Parkinson's patients?

Global Kinetics Corporation and the National Parkinson Foundation (NPF) have announced a clinical research collaboration to study the impact of continuous objective measurement of movement in Parkinson’s disease patients using Global Kinetics’ Personal KinetiGraph (PKG) Movement Recording System. The multicentre, randomised, controlled trial will be conducted as part of the NPF Parkinson’s Outcomes Project Registry Study, said to be the largest clinical study of Parkinson’s disease in the world.

According to data from the NPF Parkinson’s Outcomes Project thus far, there is currently wide variability in the use of different medicines and treatment plans in Parkinson’s disease. Physicians typically rely on clinical evaluation, a patient’s self-reporting of symptoms and response to medication to guide therapy, potentially increasing the risk of inconsistent and diverse outcomes.

“One of the great challenges in clinical care of people living with Parkinson’s disease is the subjective nature of symptom observation, which can lead to wide variability in use of medicines and in treatment protocols,” noted Global Kinetics’ co-founder and chief scientific officer, Professor Malcolm Horne.

The PKG System, however, provides an objective assessment of changes in mobility in patients with diseases and conditions that affect motor skills. The wrist-worn device automatically records motion data over a period of six days, which can be downloaded by the patient’s physician within minutes. The device can also alert patients when it’s time to take medication and the patient can acknowledge medication taken using the device.   

“The PKG provides continuous, precise and accurate assessments of changes in mobility in patients with Parkinson’s disease, which can play an important role in helping make informed treatment decisions,” said Professor Horne. “This allows clinicians to provide optimum treatment and ultimately leads to better outcomes for people with Parkinson’s.”

“Our goal with the Parkinson’s Outcomes Project is to identify clinical practices that make a difference in patient outcomes,” added Dr Peter Schmidt, NPF senior vice president and chief mission officer. “The hope is that this new PKG study will show how we can use technology to provide information to guide better and more effective clinical decisions, helping more people with Parkinson’s to achieve the best outcomes they can, and that we will be able to translate this into other care settings.”