Objective: This study aims to assess the effects of patient-directed feedback from remote symptom, medication, and disease activity monitoring on patient empowerment and treatment in Parkinson’s disease (PD).

Background: There is a need to empower patients with PD to be able to understand better and control their disease using prescribed medication and following recommendations on lifestyle. The research project EMPARK will develop an Internet of Things system of sensors, mobile devices to deliver real-time, 24/7 patient symptom information with the primary goal to support PD patients empowerment and better understanding of their disease. The system will be deployed in patient homes to continuously measure movements, time-in-bed and drug delivery from a micro-dose levodopa system. Subjective symptom scoring, time of meals and physical activities will be reported by the patients via a smartphone application. Interfaces for patients and clinicians are being developed based on the user center design methodology to ensure maximal user acceptance.

Methods: This is a randomized controlled trial where 30 PD patients from 2 university clinics in Sweden will be randomized to receive (intervention group) or not (control group) continuous feedback from the results of the EMPARK home monitoring for 2 weeks. Disease-specific (UPDRS, PDQ-39), Quality of Life (QoL) (modified EuroQoL EQ-5D) and empowerment questionnaires will be collected prior and after the intervention. The correlation of technology-based objective and patient-reported subjective parameters will be assessed in both groups. Interviews will be conducted with the clinicians and observations will be made about the patient-clinician interaction to assess the potential treatment benefits of the intervention.

Results: Preliminary results from workshops with patients and clinicians show potential to improve patient empowerment and disease control among patients. Completion of the trial will show the degree of patient empowerment, individualized treatment, and patient-clinician interactions.

Conclusions: Raising patients’ awareness about disease activity and home medication is possible among PD patients by providing them with feedback from the results of a home monitoring system. This randomized, controlled trial aims to provide evidence that this approach leads to improved patient empowerment and treatment results.

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MDS Abstracts - https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/internet-of-things-for-empowerment-and-improved-treatment-of-patients-with-parkinsons-disease/