Hi all,
This could be a new beginning of evaluating PD. Objective measurements + biomarkers and new therapeutic approaches = hope for a better treatment????
Girija

RFA from the Kinetics Foundation

Help test the value of objective measurements for PD, and receive free equipment and support for your trial or study!

Measurements that are both objective and precise are in critical need in the development of new treatments for Parkinson's Disease, particularly with the evaluation of neuroprotective therapies.

The Kinetics Foundation has supported the development and validation of the OPDM (Objective Parkinson's Disease Measurement) System, consisting of two different input devices and a back-end data server, and is now making these integrated systems available to the research community. The system was developed and validated at Academic Centers including Oregon Health Science University and Portland State University and have been used at a number of supporting institutions including the NIH, UCSF, and Rush University Medical Center; created in part through collaboration with Intel.

Call to Action: While the OPDM system has shown good promise, it is new to the Parkinson's community at large. The Kinetics Foundation has offered to provide free systems, as well as some funds for third party costs of patient participants. Their goal is to accelerate the adoption of objective measurement devices by providing the OPDM System to studies and trials that would benefit from features like increased precision and more frequent measurements.

Systems are limited, so those wishing to receive them must submit a brief online application, explaining how their study would benefit from using the system, and agree to publicly share the results they obtain from the use of the devices (e.g. journal publication, pdonlineresearch.org).

The OPDM-Dexterity can be used in clinic and/or at home, the OPDM-Mobility is clinic-only; any proposed combination of devices and locations will be considered.

We will have representatives at the MDS Congress in Buenos Aries; for more information, including how to apply, contact OPDM@kineticsfoundation.org. Please include information regarding your trial, including the number of subjects you would like to test. More information will be made available online by July 1, 2010. Submissions will be due by August 1, 2010. Winners of these systems, and the financial support that accompanies them, will be announced by September 1, 2010.

For those wishing to measure their own progress I still recomend tracking the length of time you can balance standing on each foot.

How unique that this is being conducted as a "contest."
Quoting from the announcement:
We will have representatives at the MDS Congress in Buenos Aries; for more information, including how to apply, contact OPDM@kineticsfoundation.org. Please include information regarding your trial, including the number of subjects you would like to test. More information will be made available online by July 1, 2010. Submissions will be due by August 1, 2010. Winners of these systems, and the financial support that accompanies them, will be announced by September 1, 2010.

I think this might be the beginning of a Parkinson's research revolution (one which will hopefully lead to a research "resolution." )

Without having more information as to how this OPDM works, I wonder if the statistics could be re-evaluated from one or two of the "promising" surgical trials that did well in Phase I but bombed out in phase II? And if that is not possible, I wonder if any sponsors would be interested in calling back those participants in one of those trials to be retested using this device? But that might not be statistically possible - just curious.

This would seem like an excellent method of providing one means of analysis of sub-types of people with Parkinson's. Any comments, or am I way off base?

Peggy