Researchers at the UK Dementia Research Institute (UKDRI) Care Research & Technology Centre have developed a new method for monitoring the progression of Parkinson’s disease at home without patients having to wear a wearable device. The study shows that contactless sensors can accurately detect changes in gait.
This offers a promising alternative to wearable sensors, which rely on correct use and regular recharging. According to the researchers, the technology could contribute to better monitoring of disease progression and more personalised treatment.
Alternative to wearables
Changes in movement patterns are one of the key characteristics of Parkinson’s disease. However, in current practice, these are usually only assessed during outpatient check-ups, meaning that subtle changes between hospital visits may go unnoticed. Wearable sensors enable long-term monitoring at home, but they also have limitations. The quality of the measurements depends, amongst other things, on the way a person moves, such as their arm swing whilst walking. Furthermore, patients must wear and charge the device consistently.
“Wearables provide valuable insights into the daily lives of people with Parkinson’s, but they also have limitations,” says Dr Shlomi Haar, associate professor of cognitive neuroscience and co-investigator. “We wanted to investigate whether sensors placed in the home environment could provide the same information without patients having to do anything themselves.”
Measuring gait
For the study, fifteen people with mild Parkinson’s and fourteen healthy participants were asked to perform a four-metre walking test in a specially designed home environment. The participants with Parkinson’s carried out the test twice: shortly after taking their medication and again when its effects began to wear off. The researchers used two contactless sensors: a radar system and a depth camera. These recorded, amongst other things, stride length and the time between successive steps.
Both systems proved capable of distinguishing between healthy participants and Parkinson’s patients whose medication was beginning to wear off. The radar sensor also proved sensitive enough to detect differences between measurements taken immediately after taking medication and later in the day, when symptoms began to reappear. It was striking that the sensors found hardly any differences between healthy participants and patients who had taken their medication shortly beforehand. According to the researchers, this suggests that the treatment effectively suppresses some of the gait abnormalities.
Contactless sensors in the home
The researchers see great potential for the use of contactless sensors in the home. As patients do not need to wear any equipment, the technology can collect data on changes in movement patterns over the long term and virtually unnoticed.
According to Haar, camera and radar systems could become a valuable tool in the future for monitoring disease progression and evaluating the effectiveness of treatments. The data collected can help doctors tailor therapies to individual patients whilst also providing an objective measure for assessing new medicines in clinical trials.
Although further research involving larger groups of patients is needed, the study shows that contactless monitoring could be an important step towards continuous, accessible and personalised care for people with Parkinson’s.
