Parkinson's Breakthrough
LAST UPDATE: 10/12/2006 4:28:13 PM

Some of the world's leading Parkinson's Disease researcher will be in Cincinnati this weekend for the Sunflower Revolution.

The bike event was founded by Davis Phinney, a former "Tour De France" stage winner later diagnosed with Parkinson's. There are new breakthroughs the ride will support.

A new contraption measures how well you balance when you stand. Doctor Fredy Revilla is using it to test balance in Parkinson's patients, after brain stimulation surgery. The metal platforms are hooked up to a computer which shows steadiness.

"The preliminary observations seem to suggest that some patients improve with balance and gait," Doctor Revilla tells Medical Edge Reporter Liz Bonis. "After having deep brain stimulation, and their may be different degrees of improvement." Doctor Revilla hopes to better understand which patients with Parkinson's will benefit best from Parkinson's surgery.

In the mean time, Doctor Yoram Baram, a visiting professor from Israel, is hoping these high tech goggles might help too.

"As the patient moves, and walks, the floor moves beneath them as if it were a real floor and there is evidence in the medical literature that walking on the tile floor helps a parkinson's patient walk," says Doctor Baram.

When you put them on, it is almost like something out of science fiction. So what I'm actually seeing is a black and white tile floor forcing me not to be frozen, I walk without any hesitation. The best part is, it is NOT science fiction, it is a real breakthrough which allows patients with Parkinson's to see a very different future.

To register for the Sunflower Revolution you can call 513-584-2214. The event this weekend is an educational program and a bike ride to benefit research into Parkinsons.

The goggles are expected to be on the market within a year, and will cost about $1,000.00.

Dear Z,

Very cool!

therefore,
we need to see that we have small goals to walk from one tile to another,
because flat surfaces are hard to surmise?

Helping Parkinson's disease sufferers live a better life

People with Parkinson’s are given a helping hand to interpret signals correctly

Parkinson's disease affects an estimated one in every 500 people in Europe – it is the second most common disease after Alzheimer's. With so many afflicted, one research team is trying to help people with Parkinson’s living at home to overcome the social exclusion its symptoms can cause.

A degenerative disease of later life with widely varying symptoms, Parkinson's disease (PD) can result in poor mobility or paralysis, speech disorders and depression, causing people to drop out of life's flow. It is an idiopathic disease, and researchers suspect both genetic causes and environmental pollution as contributory factors.

Partners in the ParkService initiative co-funded by the European Commission’s eTEN programme are testing a set of services that could help sufferers better manage the disease symptoms. This eInclusion project, which began in August 2004 and ends 31 March 2007, involves research institutes in four countries, Italy, Germany, the UK and Greece, in testing three prototype services.

A fascinating online video shows a stooped man with Parkinson's disease shuffling with difficulty across an apartment. After briefly observing a line of rectangles of white paper lined up on the floor before him, he can suddenly stand up straight and walk briskly over the paper trail. But at the end of the paper trail, the man stoops again and resumes shuffling.

The video demonstrates how visual markers known as ‘cues’, like these simple pieces of paper, can help people with Parkinson's disease do things that their damaged neuromotor libraries have made much more difficult, says Reynold Greenlaw at UK-based Oxford Computer Consultants Ltd., coordinator of the eTEN co-funded ParkService project.

Virtual pieces of paper
ParkService is "testing the European market for a device that lets a person with Parkinson's see the virtual equivalent of those pieces of paper, wherever he walks," says Greenlaw. That device, called INDIGO, is the core of ParkService's prototype set of telematic tools, which aim to help PD patients to live and communicate with both clinicians and others.

INDIGO is a pair of virtual-reality eyeglasses equipped with electronics and a rechargeable battery, and a belt-or pocket worn mini-computer that can be configured remotely. "A monitor in the glasses puts moving stripes in the person's peripheral vision, providing that helpful visual cue," says Greenlaw.
A monitor in the goggles provides helpful visual cues for the brain

Originally named ParkWalker, the INDIGO eyeglasses won the European Commission’s Assistive Technology Award in November 2004. They were originally developed under an earlier IST-sponsored project, PARREHA, which lead to the setting up of a joint company, ParkAid, which is the motor of the ParkService consortium.

ParkLine, another mature prototype, will give patients a secure, easy-to-use way to use their televisions to communicate with their physicians and other disease sufferers. They can type in symptom diaries using a television remote control or send video from a webcam. ParkLine is designed to keep bandwidth low in order to keep costs down.

Greenlaw says that, "We received positive feedback on ParkLine following a group presentation at the Schneckenhaus, a large group home in Germany for people with Parkinson's. Now we're working on interface customisations that people have asked for, like language and bigger buttons on the remote control."

The browser-based ParkClinic tool allows doctors to receive ParkLine messages and images from their patients. "This is the system's least challenging part. Doctors have tried it at the Institute of Neurology, but not formally," says Greenlaw.

Rollout planned for 2007
The INDIGO system costs 2,000 euros. ParkService support will be paid for in a variety of ways. "In Germany private-health insurance and patient organisations may pay for it. In the UK we will try to get backing from the National Health Service, and in Italy, patient organisations will pay," explains Greenlaw.

ParkService is a market validation project, and rollout is set for March 2007. "We'll start in Germany, because they have a unified structure for dealing with people with Parkinson's, as well as a very developed internet infrastructure and Europe's largest population," says Greenlaw.

"For now, our objective is to use feedback from the ParkService pilots to fine-tune the tools. Then, our next step is to get them into people's homes and doctors' offices in larger numbers," says Greenlaw.

Contact:
Reynold Greenlaw
Oxford Computer Consultants Ltd
Beaver House
23-38 Hythe Bridge Street
Oxford OX1 2EP
United Kingdom
Tel: +44 1865 305200
Email: reynold.greenlaw@oxfordcc.co.uk

Source: Based on information from PARKSERVICE


http://istresults.cordis.europa.eu/i...tures/ID/88689