Detection of Parkinson's disease with radio signals and wearables

Today is World Parkinson's Day: a day that calls attention to the chronic disease that affects nearly 12 million people worldwide. Increasingly, technological innovations such as watches and radio signals can make a difference, for example in the detection of the disease. We talked about it with Pieter van den Haak. He is the digital innovation manager at a center of expertise at the Radboud University Medical Center, specializing in Parkinson's disease and movement disorders.

Sleep problems, tremors, stiffness,s and slowness of movement are typical symptoms of Parkinson's disease. It is a chronic and slowly worsening brain disorder in which nerve cells in the brain are damaged.

An AI smartwatch provides insight

There is no cure for Parkinson's disease (yet). Medication can, however, suppress certain symptoms. Technology can also increasingly help, for example, to detect Parkinson's or to support patients in their daily lives, Van den Haak knows.

He is involved in the AI for Parkinson lab at Radboudumc, among other places. For example, a smartwatch has been developed in the lab by Verily Life Sciences that can reliably measure Parkinson's symptoms, such as tremors or variations in heart rate. Currently, a neurologist determines how a patient is doing during a brief hospital visit, but that can sometimes paint a very different picture than how things are going at home. The smartwatch measures continuously and objectively, providing a much better picture of the symptoms.

A disadvantage of measurements taken with a regular watch, Van den Haak knows, is that it is worn on your arm and therefore hangs loose from the body axis. While many measurements are more reliable when taken closer to the axis of the body. AI comes in handy here. “AI is used to develop new algorithms that enable reliable measurements to be made using watch data.”

Measuring movement with radio signals

Technological innovations are not limited to wearable gadgets; some solutions do not need to be worn on the body at all. For example, researchers at MIT have developed a device that helps detect Parkinson's disease. The device is about the size of a Wi-Fi router and uses radio signals that bounce off the patient's body. This allows it to measure movement and walking speed without the patient having to change anything in their daily life. Van den Haak: “This data can be used, for example, to determine the severity of Parkinson's disease, monitor the progression of the disease, and see how well the medication is working. Healthcare providers will gain a better picture of the home situation.

Offering help through gamification

A third digital development that Van den Haak is excited about is gamification. “Research shows that plenty of physical exercise protects against the worsening of Parkinson's disease. That is why we are now looking into whether a simple app, developed by Radboud University in collaboration with various partners, can help. This app encourages patients to exercise daily and rewards them for doing so. This is done through gamification. In this way, we want to keep people active despite their condition. In time, we also want to apply the app in regular care. However, it is a challenge to find the necessary funding. We will do our best to achieve this.”

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