Remote assessments using smartphones and smartwatches could be used in clinical trials to track the severity of Parkinson’s disease, a new study indicates.
“In this multicenter study, a commercially available smartwatch and a smartphone research application captured key motor and non-motor features of early, untreated” Parkinson’s, the researchers wrote, adding that these technologies “offer the promise of objective, real-world measures of the disease for use in future studies.”
Importantly, the team noted, smartphones and smartwatches can be used at home or in a lab — and providing devices and data plans to participants may help to “minimize the effects of variable access to technology or the internet based on socioeconomic status or geographic location.”
