Global Kinetics and National Parkinson Foundation (NPF) have initiated collaborative clinical research to determine the effect of continuous objective measurement of movement in patients with Parkinson’s disease using the Personal KinetiGraph (PKG) movement recording system.
The PKG System, developed by Global Kinetics, precisely and objectively tracks changes in mobility in patients with diseases andconditions affecting motor skills.
The clinical research project will be a multi-centre, randomised controlled trial, which will enrol more than 400 Parkinson’s patients, conducted as part of the NPF Parkinson’s Outcomes Project Registry Study which began in 2009.
NPF senior vice-president and chief mission officer Peter Schmidt said: "Our goal with the Parkinson’s Outcomes Project is to identify clinical practices that make a difference in patient outcomes.
"The hope is that this new PKG study will show how we can use technology to provide information to guide better and more effective clinical decisions, helping more people with Parkinson’s to achieve the best outcomes they can, and that we will be able to translate this into other care settings."
The device is sported on the wrist and it automatically records motion data over a period of six days.
It enables physicians to quickly download the information stating the patient’s symptoms determining the changes and trends that can serve as the defining factor in the diagnosis and a subsequent treatment of Parkinson’s disease.
The PKG System also issues alerts to remind patients to take medicine and the patient can at the same time confirm taking the medicine through the device.
Global Kinetics co-founder and chief scientific officer Malcolm Horne said: "The PKG provides continuous, precise, and accurate assessments of changes in mobility in patients with Parkinson’s disease, which can play an important role in helping make informed treatment decisions, this allows clinicians to provide optimum treatment and ultimately leads to better outcomes for people with Parkinson’s."
The trial is expected to determine the effect of continuous objective measures of patient mobility among the other factors which produces different results in different people and pave the way for a better clinical outcome.
Image: The Personal KinetiGraph (PKG) movement recording system. Photo: courtesy of PRNewsFoto / National Parkinson Foundation.
