The use of a telemonitoring device to assess Parkinson’s Disease (PD) symptoms and inform medication adjustments led to the majority of patients exhibiting improved or stable symptom manifestation, according to a peer-reviewed research study published in Frontiers in Neurology.
The study investigated the progression of PD symptoms over two years for 17 patients who were previously evaluated using traditional methods. Physicians integrated PDMonitor, a continuous telemonitoring device from European medical device company PD Neurotechnology, for each patient and used it to assess symptoms in their daily lives. These assessments informed decisions about their care.
The results of the study indicated that remote continuous monitoring with PDMonitor had a positive impact on PD symptom control:
The time patients in the study spent in the “Off” state – when the effects of medication used to control symptoms had worn off and symptoms returned or worsened – reduced from 36.2% to 20.3% over the period in which subjects used PDMonitor.
Almost half (44.4%) of patients reported an improvement in their condition attributable to telemonitoring, while another 37.0% indicated their condition was unchanged. These findings show a positive impact on symptom control, as motor function is expected to worsen significantly over time for patients on a typical treatment regime.
There was a notable increase in the percentage of patients reporting that they were “satisfied” with the effectiveness of their medication after using telemonitoring, improving from 26.9% to 38.5% over the two years. The percentage of patients saying they were “very satisfied” increased from 7.7% to 23.1%.
“We are very excited about the results of this study. It is clear that digital therapeutics, which involves continuous monitoring of patients in their daily lives and more informed medication adjustments based on real-world data, paves the way for a paradigm shift in Parkinson’s Disease,” said Nikos Moschos, Managing Director of PD Neurotechnology. “The increased patient satisfaction identified in this study is directly associated with the personalised treatment made possible by remote continuous monitoring.”
