Thanks in part to a $1.5 million grant from NIH, Great Lakes Neurotechnologies thinks it can make its Parkinson’s disease symptom monitoring technology more scalable and flexible by taking it mobile.
GLN makes the FDA-cleared Kinesia technology platform, which uses a patient-worn sensor and PC tablet-based software to quantify and monitor motor-related symptoms of Parkinson’s. While it’s found traction in the clinical trials market with companies developing new treatments for Parkinson’s, the company says the price point has kept it from widespread use in traditional patient care.
The current system comprises a sensor device that a patient with Parkinson’s disease wears on his finger as he performs tasks. Along with the sensor, the patient kit includes a tablet with broadband connectivity that instructs the patient through assessments, collects data from the sensors and pushes data to the cloud. Via a web portal, clinicians can access reports on patients’ progress.
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The app should be available by the end of 2014 in the U.S. and Europe, Cleveland-based GLN said.
Aside from use in monitoring disease progression and evaluating how new therapies affect clinical trial participants’ Parkinson’s systems, the Kinesia system can also help neurologists fine-tune the settings of deep brain stimulation devices after they’ve been implanted. The sensor captures linear acceleration and angular velocities, and clinically validated algorithms in GLN’s software turn them into scores that can help clinicians gauge the severity of a tremor at a given time.
