Smartphone app helps Parkinson’s patients map daily symptoms
Study finds ratings from patient self-reports match doctors' clinical ratings
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- A smartphone app helps Parkinson's patients track daily symptoms.
- Patient reports using the app align with doctors' ratings for many symptoms.
- The tool improves patient-doctor communication and enables remote monitoring.
A smartphone app allowing Parkinson’s disease patients to report their day-to-day symptoms is a reliable tool for improving communication with doctors, a study found.
Patients’ self-assessments using the Parkinson’s Image Self Report generally aligned with doctors’ clinical ratings, the researchers said.
“Integration with wearables and telemedicine may advance patient-centered [Parkinson’s] care,” wrote the team of scientists at Daejeon University in the Republic of Korea. The study, “Visual self-reporting for symptom communication in Parkinson’s disease,” was published in Technology and Health Care.
Parkinson’s is a neurodegenerative disease that causes both motor and nonmotor symptoms. Doctors usually measure these symptoms using the Movement Disorder Society–Unified Parkinson’s Disease Rating Scale (MDS-UPDRS), a clinical scale completed during medical visits.
The Parkinson’s Image Self (PIS) Report is a smartphone app designed to help patients report their own symptoms, complementing the MDS-UPDRS by collecting daily experiences with the disease to help monitor symptoms between medical visits. The study’s goal was to determine if the app provides information that matches clinical ratings for common symptoms such as pain, tremor, rigidity, and medication-related fluctuations.
Rating pain, emotions, medication regimen
The team drew on data from 78 adults with Parkinson’s, with a mean age of 63.7, who participated in a clinical trial (NCT05621772). There were 44 women and 33 men. Of these, 70 completed an eight-week follow-up. Patients had been living with Parkinson’s for an average of 4.5 years.
Participants used the PIS Report app to record their symptoms. They marked areas of pain on a body map and rated their intensity on a three-point scale (mild, moderate, or severe). They also reported their emotional state, such as anxiety, irritability, or fatigue, and indicated whether they had taken their medication.
Pain reported in the PIS Report app matched clinical pain ratings. The study also looked at off episodes, when medication wears off, and motor fluctuations between doses. Head, neck, and upper limb pain was moderately linked to off episodes, meaning more pain was associated with more frequent or more severe off episodes.
Patients who reported pain in the head or neck, arm, or trunk were more likely to report pain in other regions. They were also less likely to indicate positive emotions such as happiness. The researchers said this points to “the app’s potential as a complementary clinical tool for both pain assessment and patient-clinician communication.”
Patient reports on tremor were modestly matched to those of doctors. However, self-reported rigidity was associated with pain, not with clinical ratings of stiffness. “Patients may interpret rigidity in terms of discomfort,” the researchers wrote. Self-reported bradykinesia (slowness of movement) did not match clinical ratings.
Overall, the researchers found the PIS Report app to be a useful digital tool for tracking symptoms such as pain, tremor, off episodes, and emotions, and to support communication between patients and doctors and allow remote monitoring. Integrating the app with wearable devices and telemedicine could improve patient-centered care in the future, they said.
“By collecting patient-reported symptom data through a visual interface, the PIS Report offers a novel approach that differs from traditional language-based questionnaires and observation-based assessments,” the researchers wrote.
