Personalization in treatment of Parkinson’s disease Using smartwatches to enable personalization and patient-centeredness in treatment of Parkinson’s disease

Abstract

The project was performed in collaboration with Semcon in Gothenburg. The task from Semcon was to optimize Parkinson's disease (PD) treatment and relieve health care staff by helping them account for the individual variations of the disease, which can differ greatly from patient to patient. PD patients see their neurologist very rarely, which poses a risk of receiving unsuitable regimens. This thesis presents a solution to this problem in the form of a prototype consisting of an Android app for smartwatch and smartphone, which enables patients to effortlessly note down their symptoms and moment of medication. The prototype also allows the patients to execute a gait test which produces a numeric result as an indicator of their condition. The process of designing and developing this prototype was conducted through an iterative design process. At first, the goal was to continuously monitor PD tremors. Upon a discussion with a subject matter expert, the focus was shifted toward a system that can test a PD patient's gait. One of the reasons behind this change was that gait impairment is poorly recognized in research as there is a tendency to focus on tremors. Thus, this project may help in shedding some light on this issue. Two user tests were performed during the project. The user tests suggested that the gait test is a reliable tool for measuring PD condition. In conclusion, it was recognized that both physical and mental aspects must be in consideration for the system to enable personalization.