Breakthrough med tech could bring "paradigm shift" in Parkinson’s treatment

Sufferers of Parkinson's Disease in the UK could soon benefit from the public funding of a new technology that doctors say could bring a "paradigm shift" in the treatment of the disease.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) is presently evaluating PDMonitor, a continuous monitoring system for people with Parkinson's created by medical device firm PD Neurotechnology for use in the UK's National Health Service (NHS).

The company will submit information to NICE ahead of its Committee meeting at the end of the month where devices for the remote continuous monitoring of Parkinson's sufferers will be discussed.

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The PDMonitor is one of four medical devices currently being evaluated by NICE as part of its Diagnostic Assessment Programme.

PDMonitor uses medical-grade wearable technology to track Parkinson's motor symptoms automatically and on an ongoing basis. It enables physicians to tailor treatment plans based on a stream of objective data showing how patients experience symptoms in their day-to-day lives.

More than 150 physicians have already been trained to use PDMonitor, and the technology is currently used in private or hospital practices by physicians and patients in the UK, France, Austria, Germany, Italy, Spain, Sweden, Ireland, Greece and Cyprus.

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Preliminary feedback from Parkinson's sufferers that have monitored their symptoms for up to two years with PDMonitor indicates that 43% felt their condition had stabilised and 35% said to had improved after starting to use the technology. Clinical trials in Germany, Italy and Greece have already recorded very high reliability and specificity levels, and symptom detection accuracy of up to 93%.

Professor Ray Chaudhuri, Head of Parkinson's Research at King's College Hospital, who has been piloting PDMonitor with private patients since March 2022, said: "Parkinson’s is the world’s second most common neurodegenerative disease and a significant cause of disability. Patients’ quality of life and disease progression strongly depend on the consistent, prompt staging of the disease and optimal timing and dosing of the prescribed therapy."

"PDMonitor is supporting a paradigm shift in Parkinson’s care by improving the quality and timeliness of information physicians have to assess the disease. Monitoring patients at home, continuously while they conduct everyday activities, allows treatment decisions to be made more frequently and physicians to respond faster to changing symptoms. 

"While you cannot reverse Parkinson’s, you can delay the deterioration of symptoms and possibly decrease the risk of falling. Optimising care means the disease progresses slower in time and the therapeutic window is kept open."

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Nikos Moschos, founder of PD Neurotechnology, added: "Today, most Parkinson’s treatment is informed by subjective patient diaries reviewed by physicians once or twice a year. We’ve changed the game by providing physicians with a stream of objective data showing disease progression in the real world.

"Our transformative, medical-grade technology offers continuous monitoring, full symptom coverage and a holistic view of the patient. The majority of patients feel their health and quality of life stabilised or improved after using PDMonitor. This is data and AI at its finest."

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