Five “promising” wearable technologies that could help to improve symptoms and quality of life for Parkinson’s disease patients, according to proposed new guidance for the UK NHS published today.
The devices have sensors that continuously monitor their symptoms, which may be a more accurate record than a clinical assessment during in-person appointments.
The NHS is now to collect data on their effectiveness so the National Institute of Health and Care Excellence can make further judgements.
Mark Chapman, interim director of medical technology at NICE, said: “Providing wearable technology to people with Parkinson’s disease could have a transformative effect on their care and lead to changes in their treatment taking place more quickly.
“However, there is uncertainty in the evidence at present on these five promising technologies, which is why the committee has conditionally recommended their use by the NHS while data is collected to eliminate these evidence gaps.
“We are committed to balancing the best care with value for money, delivering both for individuals and society as a whole, while at the same time driving innovation into the hands of health and care professionals to enable best practice.”
The five technologies are: The Personal KinetiGraph (PKG) Movement Recording System by Global Kinetics Corporation. This is a watch that measures movement and has event markers for medication reminders and patient acknowledgement.
The second is STAT-ON, by Sense4care. This is a waist-worn inertia recorder that is configured by a doctor. It measures motor disorders and events, but not tremor, and measures involuntary movement, how people walk, falls, energy expenditure and posture.
Kinesia 360 by Great Lakes Neurotechnologies is worn on the wrist and ankle and monitors physical motion and muscle activity to analyse how wearers can move and how their condition is progressing, while its KinesiaU version measures tremor, slowness and involuntary movement using a smartwatch and smartphone app. Patients can view reports in real-time and share these with their healthcare professionals.
The fifth technology is PDMonitor by PD Neurotechnology, which measures activity/posture, slowness, gait disturbances, freezing of gait, wrist tremor, leg tremor, involuntary movement and on and off periods.
The NHS has started data collection on one of the devices and hundreds of patients have already been issued with the Personal KinetiGraph (PKG) watch in the scheme that could be rolled out across England to about 120,000 people who have Parkinson’s.
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