bracelet device, might just be sales hype
Watch and learn: a new tool for measuring Parkinson’s disease
http://theconversation.com/watch-and...-disease-14706

I dont' see a benefit to the patient....I got from reading this that it might better help a doc see when to recommend DBS....assuming the patient wants that, a big IF. Does it help tell a doc if/how well meds are working? That could be good, but a patient already knows that...this doesn't offer any new treatment options.

Comparing this to diabetes depresses me. Diabetes has been extremely well-funded for decades, and they have nothing more to show for a cure than the same-old insulin they've had forever...sure, there are newer and better delivery methods for that insulin, but nothing in terms of treatment...oh wait, I forgot, diet and exercise can reverse type 2 diabetes (I have family who did this)...but no one can sell that, not like a handy dandy glucose monitoring system, test strips, etc.

Call me cynical, but this seems like something an iphone app could do just as easily (and I don't have even had an iphone). It might be out there already, there are so many apps out there.

i personally don't care how symptoms are measured, but if there was a convienent and easy way that even doctors would find credible, then that would be great. imagine you want to provide "proof" that a supplement helps, that you are no longer taking meds and doing well, whatever. with this device or a smart phone you'd be able to do it, you could maybe just rent one temporarily.

and would be useful for elderly/patients having a difficult time expressing themselves, tells how much sleep you got, measure compliance - not sure how - and OC behavior - not sure how.

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

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.