Quote:
Originally Posted by johnt
Measurement is critical to the whole of science and engineering. Medicine, and Parkinson's in particular, is no exception. As they say: "If you can't measure it, you can't manage it".
Accurate measurement allows one:
- to identify people with PD, often earlier than a GP;
- to identify rates of progression;
- to identify symptomatic relief.
Of course, there are issues of accuracy, completeness, cost and availability. The watch containing accelerometers device, although not perfect, seems to me to be a reasonable approach. Measures of other areas, such a gastric motility, would be useful.
A simple application would be to use data from the "watch" to fine tune existing medications, e.g. 85 mg of levodopa may give a particular person better relief than either 75 mg or 100 mg.
Data + Analysis => Progress
John
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I hope you're right, that this leads to better treatment or even a cure. But when I hear "manage", that does not connote in my mind with improvement.
We all know a tremendous number of people in a great many fields make their living off of others being sick. A LOT of money is made "managing" disease: diabetes, PD, MS, fill in the blank. Something new which only "manages" PD is not necessarily an improvement IMHO.
And I doubt most of the neuros we've seen would accept the data from this bracelet as convincing if we were to walk into their office and show that mucuna was as effective if not more so than sinemet. NONE of the neuros we've seen had even heard of it. But I'm open to being wrong, so if this device betters your life with PD, share with all of us here how it does that.