Although guidelines for Parkinson’s patients suggest that they visit a specialist every six months, according to a report in Parkinson’s News Today, the waiting period may be up to one year for that appointment.
The lack of trained nurse specialists together with the growing number of Parkinson’s patients weighs heavily on both patients and staff. The patient population is estimated to grow to one-fifth by 2025.
About Wearable Technology
The PKG is a device worn on the wrist and closely resembles an ordinary wristwatch. The device monitors the wearer’s motor symptoms and relays the data using its well-guarded formula to the remote care team. The team will either respond directly to the patient or relay the information to the nurse specialist.
PKG is a product of Global Kinetics. It is scheduled for testing as part of the “Developing Home-Based Parkinson’s Care” initiative at Plymouth University.
About the Project
One hundred fifty patients will participate in the initial project. They will wear the PKG device for 6-day intervals. By using the transmitted PKG data, the team will be able to make necessary changes to treatment in real time. In addition, the patients will also be asked about other non-motor symptoms such as any change in mood. Although the team works remotely, appointments or calls to the patient will be scheduled as required.
The care team believes that this wearable technology will empower patients to be more proactive. It will also vastly improve communication between patients and health-care staff.
Co-design workshops are being set up and attended by both caregivers and clinical staff to assess patients needs and their expectations.
Parkinson’s is unpredictable and that can be very frustrating.
One of the patients taking part in the project commented that the PKG is easy to use. He is comforted by the fact that he has a specialist monitoring his Parkinson’s symptoms.
His wife and caregiver, Sue, finds that making daily decisions about when or if her husband needs additional medication is very difficult. Sue believes that PKG will solve that problem.
