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Smartphone users asked
to support vital health research
A new global health project
involving the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine is calling on 100,000
people to use their phones to contribute to Parkinson's disease research.
The '100 for Parkinson's' project uses smartphone technology to help
understand the impact of Parkinson's and provide valuable new research.
The project is led by digital health start up company uMotif, and supported
by the North West Coast Academic Health Science Network (AHSN).
Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine's Professor Duolao Wang is the co
principal investigator. He explained:- "Ordinarily the patient and
other participants may be passive in a study like this, with researchers
interpreting and inputting their data, but in this case we put those
monitoring their own health right at the centre of the research. With
100,000 participants we are talking about big data, which will not be
without its challenges, but I am excited to be part of a project that will
be able to identify characteristics and patterns in clinically important
data in order to help improve the quality of life for people with this
devastating disease."
People with Parkinson's, their friends, family and anyone else can use the
uMotif app on their smartphone or tablet to monitor their health for 100
days and donate their data for research.
Bruce Hellman, Chief Executive of uMotif said:- "We're so used to
communicating, shopping, even banking, on our mobile phones and yet we're
only just starting to uncover the potential for our health.
100 For Parkinson's will find out how smartphone platforms can help people
with Parkinson's, and everyone else, to understand their own bodies.
Patients with Parkinson's often only visit a doctor twice a year, so knowing
more about their health will help them to bridge the gap between health
visits and better understand their symptoms."
One person in every 500 has Parkinson's disease, with more than 127,000
people in the UK and around 10 million people globally suffering from the
condition. The app will enable people to track sleep quality, mood,
exercise, diet and stress levels, areas that are commonly affected by the
disease.
Sam Jordan lives in Runcorn and was diagnosed with Parkinson's three years
ago, when she was just 42 years old. A Parkinson's nurse told her about the
uMotif app and how it could be used to track and monitor symptoms.
Sam said:- "I felt that I was back in charge, I could see patterns in
my symptoms and how my disease was progressing. It gives you a focus that's
very positive and it has proved invaluable when it comes to talking through
my symptoms with my doctor."
A survey by The Cure Parkinson's Trust revealed that 90% of people
with Parkinson's were interested in using technology to understand their
symptoms.
Helen Matthews, from The Cure Parkinson's Trust said:- "Every person's
Parkinson's is different and hugely changeable. Tracking even the simplest
of changes allows people to not only better understand their health, but
provides essential data for research. This will give us a better
understanding of the impact on quality of life of potential new treatments
to slow, stop and reverse Parkinson's."
Anyone can take part in the project and the donated data will contribute to
academic research approved by a committee led by The Cure Parkinson's Trust
and Parkinson's UK, helping to unlock new discoveries in Parkinson's.
While
the focus is Parkinson's, healthy people are needed to provide the control
data for future research.
Those interested in taking part should go to the 100 for Parkinson's
website, where they can find out how to download the app for free.
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