CiC – Effect of medication on mobility in people with PD

  • Research type

    Research Study

  • Full title

    Confidence in Concept (CiC) - Translating digital healthcare to enhance clinical management: evaluating the effect of medication on mobility in people with Parkinson’s disease (PD).

  • IRAS ID

    295771

  • Contact name

    Alison Yarnall

  • Contact email

    alison.yarnall@newcastle.ac.uk

  • Sponsor organisation

    Newcastle Joint Research Office

  • ISRCTN Number

    ISRCTN13156149

  • Duration of Study in the UK

    0 years, 11 months, 30 days

  • Research summary

    COVID-19 has reinforced the need for tools for remote patient management; ultimately these tools will transform future clinical care and research. Wearable technology (e.g. body worn devices, smartwatches) has the potential to address this need.

    In Parkinson’s disease (PD), motor symptoms (e.g. balance and mobility problems) are disabling and can be improved with medication (e.g. Levodopa). Levodopa is prescribed in multiple doses over the course of a day and therefore timing is critical for alleviating symptoms. Medication response can be highly variable across people with PD leading to fluctuating symptoms over the course of the day, compromising mobility and quality of life. Adhering to a complex medication regime is hard and understanding fluctuations in response to medication is almost impossible to evaluate through clinic visits, recall and diaries.

    Understanding medication adherence and its effect on motor function during everyday life would ensure effective patient management, by allowing clinicians to use this information to adapt medication regimes (dose and frequency) to provide optimal treatment.

    This project aims to collect data, over a week, with a wearable multi-component “system” for remote monitoring which uses mobility data obtained from the individual to improve management and optimise treatment effects in people with PD.
    30 people with PD will be recruited and assessed once (single visit) over a week: in addition to real-world walking data collected with a wearable device (placed on the lower back), contextual information (e.g. weather) will be captured via a smartphone and adherence to medication regimes will be collected via a smartwatch.

    This study will therefore use a wearable multi-component “system” (smartphone, smartwatch and wearable device) to collect real-world data to assess medication adherence, quantify mobility outcomes and create reliable data-driven models to demonstrate that digital measures of mobility can monitor and predict response to medication.

  • REC name

    London - Westminster Research Ethics Committee

  • REC reference

    21/PR/0469

  • Date of REC Opinion

    21 May 2021

  • REC opinion

    Further Information Favourable Opinion