New Israeli Technology Helps Treat Parkinson's Disease

New research dealing with monitoring and treatment of Parkinson's Disease will be presented at a conference at Samaria' Ariel University.

First Publish: 10/23/2014, 12:54 PM By Nancy Blank

Israeli-developed device will help monitor the develpment of Parkinson's Disease

New research dealing with the monitoring and treatment of patients with Parkinson's disease using wearable technology and advanced data analysis will be presented at a conference Thursday at Ariel University in Samaria (Shomron) by Dr. Shahar Cohen from Intel.

Intel's applied research for this project was done in collaboration with the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research, the largest private funder of Parkinson's research in the world.

The wearable technological device is something like a watch that patients wear on their wrist. This device allows for symptoms to be continuously monitored and recorded, making up to 300 observations per second on every patient, thereby providing a more accurate picture of the effects of the disease.

With the new technology, this device can record such things as pulse, slowness of movement, tremors and sleep quality.

Constant monitoring also alleviates the burden of both doctors and patients, since until now data could only be collected for brief periods during visits to doctor's offices. 

According to developers, one of the key advantages, in addition to the large amounts of data that can be recorded, is that the information is totally objective. Doctors previously were forced to rely on their patients reports which makes for very subjective data, and can cause strain in the doctor/patient relationship. 

There are also huge variances in the way people suffer Parkinson's disease. The fact that the symptoms vary so greatly made it difficult for doctors to monitor alone. 

Researchers and developers hope that access to new and large amounts of data will significantly aid research and care for patients with Parkinson’s disease - with the objective of soon identifying a cure. 

“This will allow researchers to better understand how Parkinson's disease works and what the exact symptoms are,” Dr. Cohen explained. “Until now many aspects of the disease where virtually unknown because of the need for in depth monitoring of patients, now researchers will be able to get a much clearer picture of how the disease is affecting patients.” Dr. Cohen said.

Clinical trials have been carried out in both Israel and the United States. A large amount of data has been collected and further experiments are planned soon. 

For more information about the new technology and statements from patients and researchers: 

The conference was organized by Dr. Inon Zuckerman, Department of Industrial Engineering and Management, Ariel University. Artificial intelligence experts and researchers from around the world will come together to witness the presentation of the breakthrough research
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