Early diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease thanks to smartwatch – Breaking News
Parkinson’s disease can be diagnosed 7 years in advance thanks to smart watches.
A study conducted in England showed that data from smartwatches used by participants up to 7 years ago can help diagnose Parkinson’s disease.
According to Sky News, Researchers at Cardiff University’s UK Dementia Research Institute have found that smart watches can play an important role in the early diagnosis of Parkinson’s.
In the study, which used the biomedical database called “Biobank”, which contains the health data of about half a million people in the UK, the data was analyzed using artificial intelligence.
The study tracked the movement speed of 103 thousand 712 people who wore smartwatches for a week in the period 2013-2016.
The data obtained from the smartwatches of the participants who were diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in the 7 years after said period were compared to those previously diagnosed with the same disease.
Accordingly, it was found that the movements of the participants with Parkinson’s disease and those diagnosed with this disease within 7 years were slower than the healthy individuals.
In subsequent years, data from those with Parkinson’s disease differed from those from healthy people, showing that symptoms of the disease could be diagnosed up to 7 years earlier.
MOTION TRACKER AND SMART WATCHES CAN BE USED FOR MEDICAL OBSERVATION PURPOSES
Cardiff University Principal Investigator, Dr. Cynthia Sandor noted in her statement that the week-long data obtained from the participants allows long-term predictions to be made about people’s health status.
Sandor said the findings allow them to develop a reliable and affordable method for early diagnosis of Parkinson’s. Sandor stressed that motion tracking devices and smart watches can be used for medical observation.
One of the researchers, Dr. Kathryn Peall, said that data suggesting Parkinson’s disease can be distinguished from data on factors that influence movement speed, such as other neurodegenerative diseases and advanced age.
Peall stressed that the research gives hope for the development of new therapies that will slow the progression of Parkinson’s disease and the use of artificial intelligence in diagnosis.
Parkinson’s, one of the most common neurodegenerative diseases worldwide after Alzheimer’s disease, affects the lives of nearly 10 million people.
The research has been published in the journal Nature Medicine.