An online artificial intelligence (AI)-powered test where users tap their fingers in front of a webcam may ultimately help rate the severity of Parkinson’s disease from afar and within minutes, a study suggests.
The system performed almost as well as three expert neurologists and better than two primary care physicians in making sense of the data, which mirror Parkinson’s symptoms assessed using validated clinical tools.
“These findings could have huge implications for patients who have difficulty gaining access to neurologists, getting appointments, and traveling to the hospital,” Ehsan Hoque, PhD, the study’s senior author and an associate professor of computer science at the University of Rochester, said in a university news release. “It’s an example of how AI is being gradually introduced into health care to serve people outside of the clinic and improve health equity and access.” Hoque is also the co-director of the Rochester Human-Computer Interaction Laboratory.
