New tools for Parkinson’s added to Digital Medicine Society library
Tools in open-access library aim to aid in research, clinical care
The Digital Medicine Society or DiMe, working with The Michael J. Fox Foundation (MJFF) and the Critical Path Institute (C-Path), has added digital tools for Parkinson’s disease research and clinical care to its library of digital health technologies.
The interactive Library of Digital Measurement Products is an open-access repository of digital clinical measures, measurement tools, and datasets. Besides Parkinson’s, it covers three other topics, namely sleep, Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias, and physical activity.
The work, born out of DiMe’s Digital Health Measurement Collaborative Community, is part of initiatives with a common goal: to gain new insights into Parkinson’s, speed research, and improve clinical care by making evidence-based digital tools easier to find and use.
“This collaboration has made it easier for the research community to benchmark progress in [Parkinson’s disease] against other therapeutic areas, eliminating redundant development and identifying unmet need for new measurement products,” Jennifer Goldsack, DiMe’s CEO, said in a press release.
Digital Medicine Society adds tools with help of MJFF, C-Path
Not everyone experiences Parkinson’s in the same way, and the order in which symptoms appear, and how quickly they progress, also varies from person to person. Monitoring can help doctors adjust treatment as symptoms develop over time.
“However, the diverse and fluctuating symptoms of [Parkinson’s] present challenges in clinical monitoring,” said Diane Stephenson, executive director of C-Path’s Critical Path for Parkinson’s, a public-private partnership that’s working to speed the path to approval for new treatments.
“Designing patient-centric digital interventions for [Parkinson’s] requires a comprehensive understanding of the full patient experience,” Stephenson said.
“Sensor-based digital health technologies can bridge [the] gap [in patient monitoring] by enabling remote and frequent measurement of [Parkinson’s] symptoms, supporting early intervention, innovative treatments, and improved outcomes for patients.
Remote digital tools have improved how researchers and doctors monitor Parkinson’s by using sensors to track symptoms. Because sensors can measure symptoms round-the-clock, they provide more detailed and frequent data than do occasional clinic visits.
“Sensor-based digital health technologies can bridge [the] gap by enabling remote and frequent measurement of [Parkinson’s] symptoms, supporting early intervention, innovative treatments, and improved outcomes for patients,” Stephenson said.
DiMe’s Library of Digital Measurement Products offers validated digital tools for high-quality digital measurements and better disease monitoring. This is expected to help doctors check Parkinson’s progression and response to treatment.
Yuge Xiao, clinical research lead at MJFF, noted that, “with Parkinson’s disease, there is a lot of territory yet to be explored in terms of meaningful aspects of disease that can be measured with digital health technology.”
Xiao calls the library’s new enhancements “a critical step forward for clinicians, developers, or researchers looking for evidence-based tools.
“The data sets give users the information needed to expedite timelines, facilitate assessment of the landscape for sensor-based digital health technologies, and allow benchmarking of digital innovation,” Xiao said.
About the Author
