An introduction to Parkinson Smartwatch
For some more information, please click a bar. For even more details, please explore the menu at the left hand side.
The Parkinson Smartwatch has been designed to support the treatment of Parkinson’s disease. This easy and yet highly effective system comprises of a watch and a website.
The Parkinson Smartwatch e-diary records and shows changes in your condition. Here is an example of a single day. The yellow segments show an ‘off’ or ‘bad’ moment, whilst green is ‘good’.
Keeping an accurate diary can significantly help to improve treatment plans. Many patients with Parkinson’s disease experience ‘good’ and ‘bad’ hours, so-called response fluctuations. These fluctuations can often be managed through changes to the medication schedule. Small changes can often make a big difference, but such changes require information. Your doctor needs to know when the ‘bad’ hours occur, and how they relate to mealtimes and when medication was taken. Recording such fluctuations in a handwritten diary can be a hassle, and such diaries are frequently inaccurate. The Parkinson Smartwatch provides a convenient and precise alternative.
Simply tap on an icon on the watch to record an event in your electronic diary.
At the same time the Parkinson Smartwatch keeps track of your movements using accelerometry.
You, your doctors, and other care providers can log in to your personal webpage on the Parkinson Smartwatch website and see smart charts documenting and detailing the data input using your Parkinson Smartwatch. Your doctor can use this information to improve your treatment schedule.
With the Parkinson Smartwatch you are able to easily record the severity of your Parkinson’s disease. A report is automatically generated from the data received from the watch. This allows the doctor to see how you have been feeling from hour to hour and to judge how effective your treatment has been. Your doctor is then able to modify the treatment schedule if necessary.
The report is a bit like a calendar or diary. Different colors represent different categories. Green represents ‘good’ or ‘on’, yellow represents ‘bad’ or ‘off’ - either stiffness or slowness – and may indicate under-treatment, and red represents involuntary movements or dyskinesias, which indicates overtreatment.
[This feature will be available soon.]
The Parkinson Smartwatch is able to detect falls and report them to your family immediately.
But what if they do occur? The Parkinson Smartwatch provides a warning system for falls. Whenever the accelerometer detects a pattern which may indicate a fall, it will automatically send a message to your family. Understandably, an accelerometer is not able to detect 100% of falls: a false alarm could also be cause by a violent swing of an arm, or simply by dropping the watch. Therefore, we have chosen a reasonable ratio, allowing the Parkinson Smartwatch to detect a fair number of falls, whilst not wanting it to give too many false alarms. Therefore, whilst this feature offers an extra sense of security, is it not able to provide any guarantees.
[This function will be available soon.]
The Parkinson Smartwatch can also be set up to receive exercise reminders. The exercise schedule, and the photographs or pictures used, can be personalized.
NB: until this function becomes available we suggest uploading an ‘exercise picture’ into your medication reminders.
