Using Smart Watches to Detect Parkinson’s Disease

Image credit: UK Dementia Research Institute 

A solution for screening someone’s risk of developing Parkinson’s disease could already be sitting on their wrist, a new study suggests.

Research published this month in Nature Medicine has revealed smartwatches could be the key to identifying the often-debilitating brain disorder, up to seven years before formal diagnosis.

Led by a team from the UK Dementia Research Institute and the Neuroscience and Mental Health Innovation Institute at Cardiff University, researchers discovered smartwatch data associated with how fast the wearer moves could be used to accurately predict those who would later develop Parkinson’s disease.

Data was collected from over 103,000 participants in the UK Biobank, who wore a medical-grade smartwatch for seven days between 2013 and 2016.

Researchers measured individuals’ speed of movement, and leveraging artificial intelligence revealed that the data could accurately predict participants who would later develop Parkinson’s disease.

Noting that an estimated 30 percent of the UK population already wear smartwatches, the study’s lead author Cynthia Sandor said using the low-cost, accessible data derived from smartwatches had exciting implications for both researchers and clinicians.

“We have shown here that a single week of data captured can predict events up to seven years in the future,” said Sandor in a statement.

“This has implications both for research, in improving recruitment into clinical trials, and in clinical practice, in allowing patients to access treatments at an earlier stage, in future when such treatments become available.

“With these results, we could develop a valuable screening tool to aid in the early detection of Parkinson’s.

Read the full research article via Nature Medicine, or check out the UK Dementia Research Institute press release.