Can Objective Measurements Improve Treatment Outcomes in Parkinson’s Disease?
Many examples in medicine show that therapies are most effective when measurement is used to guide their implementation, dose and effects. There are effective symptomatic therapies for the motor symptoms of Parkinson’s disease, which improve quality of life and have a health economic justification for their subsidisation. As measurement should lead to more effective deployment of these therapies, even in a percentage of cases, then costs of therapy would be reduced and by that percentage. We conclude that there is a clear need or continuous objective measures of dyskinesia and bradykinesia while patients go about their normal daily activities. The benefit of measurement would be greatest if these measures were directed at treating fluctuations.