New smartphone platform helps doctors track Parkinson’s symptoms
Cedars-Sinai program shows app may prompt earlier care decisions
Written by |
- Kneu Health’s smartphone platform enables ongoing monitoring of Parkinson’s symptoms between clinic visits.
- The app tracks movement, speech, cognitive function, and nonmotor symptoms such as sleep.
- Clinicians reported the platform helped identify the need for earlier intervention and more personalized care planning.
The integration of Kneu Health’s smartphone-based platform into Cedars-Sinai’s Parkinson’s care program enabled ongoing symptom monitoring and revealed the need for earlier intervention in 79% of encounters.
According to the company, clinicians reported that the added insight helped care teams monitor treatment responses and inform more timely, personalized care adjustments for people with Parkinson’s disease.
The platform was used daily by 104 people with Parkinson’s as part of their routine care. Over six months, it captured more than 46,000 measures of movement, speech, and cognitive function. The results also showed that clinicians reported a deeper understanding of disease progression in 93% of encounters.
Why tracking symptoms between visits is important in Parkinson’s
“As Parkinson’s populations grow and clinical complexity increases, clinicians will need reliable visibility into how patients are progressing over time,” Caroline Cake, co-founder and CEO of Kneu Health, said in a company press release. “This collaboration with Cedars-Sinai shows that leading academic programs are ready to evolve how chronic neurological disease is managed,” and “is demonstrating that this kind of model can operate within established specialty practice and deliver meaningful clinical impact.”
Parkinson’s is caused by the loss of dopaminergic neurons — nerve cells that produce dopamine, a signaling molecule involved in motor control. This loss leads to motor symptoms such as tremor, slowed movement, and balance and gait problems, as well as nonmotor symptoms including speech and cognitive difficulties.
These symptoms often fluctuate from day to day, making consistent monitoring important for clinicians trying to track disease progression and intervene earlier when needed. However, traditional clinic visits capture symptoms only at specific moments in time and are often spaced several months apart, meaning care adjustments may happen only after symptoms worsen significantly.
Kneu’s platform uses smartphone sensors and structured tests to track changes in tremor, voice, balance, gait, reaction time, and cognitive function. The system is designed to fit into patients’ daily routines, providing a tool that can be used outside the clinic. The app analyzes these changes using clinically trained artificial intelligence models to help detect signs of neurological decline earlier and support more timely intervention.
During the six-month pilot program, the team at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center analyzed the data to identify trends in symptom patterns and treatment response. In 79% of encounters, clinicians reported that the app prompted them to consider earlier intervention. In about half of the cases, the app revealed meaningful trends in symptoms over time.
Platform data uncovered symptoms patients may not report in clinic
Additionally, the app identified emerging nonmotor symptoms that may not always be raised during clinic visits, including sleep disturbances and early memory changes. By integrating these measures into existing workflows, care teams can evaluate and address these issues more quickly.
“Embedding sustained clinical insight into our Parkinson’s program provides a more complete picture of how symptoms and treatments evolve between appointments. That additional visibility supports more timely adjustments and more personalized care planning across this complex patient population,” said Michele Tagliati, MD, professor and neurologist at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.
For example, in one case involving progressive gait decline over six weeks, the platform data prompted clinicians to conduct a detailed evaluation and consider a physiotherapy referral before a fall occurred. In another case, changes in tremor patterns suggested that an evening medication dose was becoming less effective, prompting clinicians to review treatment timing and possible factors affecting how the medication was absorbed.
The smartphone-based digital tool that measures Parkinson’s tremor has received FDA clearance and is expanding adoption across U.S. academic and specialty health systems, as well as several parts of the U.K. national health system.
Last year, the company said it had raised $5.6 million to expand the platform’s commercial capacity, publish outcomes data, and advance dementia monitoring technology.
