About 50 volunteers from Spain, Italy, Ireland and Israel, all with Parkinson’s, have been testing a portable monitoring system developed over a period of 5 years by a group of Portuguese researchers.
High-Tech Monitor for Parkinson’s Patients
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Called the Remmark System, the apparatus consists of a wearable movement sensor to monitor the patient’s gait, a headset, an automated medication pump and a phone to control the components, gather data and facilitate communication.
As explained by Varon Saxama in Pharma, when the sensors detect an abnormal gait, cues are sent to the patient via the headset that encourage the patient to walk to its rhythm, thus helping to regain a normal stride and pace. The device can detect falls and call for emergency assistance while the medication pump can be remotely controlled and activated for delivery of a rescue dose of medication. Finally, doctors can monitor the data in real time and use it to make adjustments to their patients’ medications or treatment plans. Portugal’s University Polytechnic of Catalonia developed the system.
The researchers plan to present the their results and those of volunteers’ testing at a workshop in Madrid in April.
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This is a fascinating development. In my practice we've seen similar outcomes with the revised protocol. The key differentiator seems to be patient selection criteria. Has anyone else noticed the correlation with BMI thresholds?
Great point. I'd push back slightly on the conclusion, the sample size in the cited study is too small to draw population-level inferences. That said, the directional signal is compelling and worth a larger RCT.
We implemented a similar approach last year. Early results are promising but we're still gathering 12-month follow-up data. Happy to share our protocol if anyone is interested.
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