Parkinson’s Disease (PD) is a chronic, incurable, neurodegenerative disease that affects approximately 1,2 million people in Europe. It is possible to effectively treat PD so that the symptoms are significantly reduced, but only when an accurate diagnosis of disease progression has been made. The current methodologies for monitoring PD progression are based on patient interviews, activity diaries and patient observation. These methods have significant weaknesses as they are expensive and fail to accurately diagnose the patient’s state, meaning that treatment is not optimal. This has a significant cost, both economically and on the patient’s quality of life.
Sense4Care are the owners of a proprietary sensor, PARK-IT, that was developed and verified during the FP7 REMPARK project. This sensor accurately monitors PD progression through patient movements. The sensor contains algorithms that specifically identify a patient’s status and can support neurologists to make a more accurate diagnosis of the patient’s state and the appropriateness of their current treatment regime.
Sense4Care have applied to the SME instrument to bring this sensor to the market, for the benefit of neurologists and PD patient’s and their families. The aim of the phase 1 project is confirm the feasibility of successfully launching the product on the market. As the technical aspects of the sensor have been verified during the REMPARK project, achieving over 90% sensitivity and over 90% specificity, the key for the phase 1 project is to confirm that there is sufficient market demand for the PARK-IT product.