scholarly journals A Long Way to Go: Patient Perspectives on Digital Health for Parkinson’s Disease

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-6
Author(s):  
Sara Riggare ◽  
Jon Stamford ◽  
Maria Hägglund

Digital health promises to improve healthcare, health, and wellness through the use of digital technologies. The purpose of this commentary is to review and discuss the field of digital health for Parkinson’s disease (PD) focusing on the needs, expectations, and wishes of people with PD (PwP). Our analysis show that PwP want to use digital technologies to actively manage the full complexity of living with PD on an individual level, including the unpredictability and variability of the condition. Current digital health projects focusing on PD, however, does not live up to the expectations of PwP. We conclude that for digital health to reach its full potential, the right of PwP to access their own data needs to be recognised, PwP should routinely receive personalised feedback based on their data, and active involvement of PwP as an equal partner in digital health development needs to be the norm.

Impact ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 (8) ◽  
pp. 4-5
Author(s):  
Lucy Annette

Three expert roundtables took place as part of DigitalHealthEurope (DHE), with discussions surrounding health data sharing and use. In the first roundtable, the implementation of GDPR was explored and the experts delved into possible remaining challenges associated with understanding the way in which health related data may be used. Legal issues and the importance of data protection and citizen protection were discussed, as was the need for more human resources regarding data protection, which could be rectified by the provision of education in this area. The introduction of a new EU body responsible for data legislative needs was an idea that was put forward. Next, the law as an enabler of data use was discussed, along with the protection of citizens and data. It was highlighted that in order for the full potential of digital health to be realised, data literacy and skills are paramount. The experts also discussed how data can be used to protect citizens, without compromising a right to privacy, as well as the importance of generating the right data to ensure that it can be used to protect citizens' health and wellness. A further topic of discussion was how the development of a range of skills among data stakeholders would lead to the better use of data and that this would have a positive impact on health and wellness.


Author(s):  
Hector Riquelme-Heras

Background: Parkinson's disease was described for the first time by James Parkinson in 1817 in the trial "Shaking Palsy," and thus there is also evidence of this disease in the Indian medical system 4500 years ago, for the diagnosis and its management with Mucuna pruriens.Years later, it was subsequently determined to contain levodopa. Two types of manifestations of Parkinson's disease are currently known, such as motor and non-motor, the first being the one that usually leads to diagnosis. Success in this will depend on the skill of the primary care physician, the ability to recognize the first symptoms by the patient, and the health systems in the management of care for the timely referral. This work shows the comprehensive management of a patient who arrives at Primary Care services, presenting vague and specific symptoms. These symptoms were treated with medications or remedies in order to calm the condition temporarily. It is convenient to call the specific symptoms such as headache, nausea, pain, dizziness, tiredness and weakness, poor motivation, sadness, easy crying, and sleep disturbances; A large percentage go to their health centers for presenting motor alterations, many times identified by their relatives or by themselves and despite being recognized as something abnormal, many of them come when the tremor intervenes with the activities of daily life. At this point, the management of the disease would begin, making clear the importance of education for the population to attend abnormal situations on time and not in late stages, significantly improving the quality of life or the prognosis of the disease Parkinson's, as is the case that occurred in our institution; A 64-year-old female patient who presents with tremor in the fifth finger of the right hand, she mentions that it is more intense when there are apparently stress situations, hyposmia and sleep disturbances, going to different health centers where they were controlled the discomfort with essential medications, many of these not requiring a prescription, temporarily decreasing in intensity; This being the beginning of multi-causality for proper management from considering the first contact doctor as a resource manager with the use of diagnostic skills to recognize characteristic signs in early stages of the disease and the ability to maintain continuity with the patients and their families as a model of family system. Studies were determined that non-motor manifestations could appear months or years before they manifest as motor symptoms to give comprehensive management to patients from their first contact with the health centers closest to them. The diagnostic presumption and its referral to the neurology and timely treatment service, until evaluating the functionality and efficacy of health policies, avoiding the delay in pharmacological treatment and access to specific neuroimaging studies at any stage of the disease. Objective: The objective of this report is to present a clinical case of a patient diagnosed with Parkinson's disease, from its management in the first contact medical services to have comprehensive management by a neurologist, thus in this way the period of latency to start treatment. Methods: We present a clinical case of a 64-year-old patient who came to consultation due to a tremor in the fifth finger of the right hand.A review of her medical history is performed, and management by different specialties is identified, for mood disorders, insomnia, essential tremor in addition to allergic rhinitis, already with drug treatment with slight or no improvement. The patient underwent a neurological examination and imaging and laboratory studies. She was referred to the neurology service as soon as possible. Result: After the interrogation and physical examination, the patient was referred to the Neurology service to confirm the presumption of diagnosis as a movement disorder under study. This process is often called the "latency period" of the diagnosis. The present work is shown as a decisive factor in giving a verdict on this problem. It is known that this level of resolution takes into account the pillars of first contact medicine as health resource managers. In this way, pharmacological treatment was started with a decrease in tremor as a motor symptom and an increase in quality and amount of sleep, increased mood, and affect as non-motor symptoms. Conclusion: The patient is under established medical and pharmacological control, and the long diagnostic latency period could be evidenced, as it usually happens in many movement disorders or their early stages, in this case, Parkinson's disease. Likewise, the family doctor is an instrument that allows the resolution of more than 90% of health problems in general, and the proper management of the remaining percentage is multifactorial, as well as medical skill and experience, the capacity of the patient or the family members. in recognizing early-stage motor disorders and health systems that often make a referral to other medical specialties difficult.


2018 ◽  
Vol 10 ◽  
pp. 117957351880358 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ashish Kumar Gupta ◽  
Komal Rani ◽  
Surabhi Swarnkar ◽  
Gaurav Khunger Kumar ◽  
Mohd Imran Khan ◽  
...  

Aim of the Study: Parkinson’s disease and schizophrenia are disease end points of dopaminergic deficit and hyperactivity, respectively, in the mid brain. Accordingly, current medications aim to restore normal dopamine levels, overshooting of which results in adverse effects of psychosis and extra-pyramidal symptoms, respectively. There are currently no available laboratory tests to guide treatment decisions or help predict adverse side effects of the drugs. The aim was to therefore explore the possibility of using apolipoprotein E as a biomarker to monitor pharmacological intervention in dopamine dictated states of Parkinson’s disease and schizophrenia for optimum therapy. Methods: Naïve and treated, Parkinson’s disease and schizophrenic patients were recruited from neurology and psychiatry clinics. Serum of healthy volunteers was collected as controls. Serum concentrations of apolipoprotein E was estimated by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Pathway analysis was carried out to delineate the interactions of apolipoprotein E in Parkinson’s disease and schizophrenia. Results: Apolipoprotein E levels are higher in Parkinson’s disease patients as compared with schizophrenic samples ( P < .05). Also, post-treatment apolipoprotein E levels in both disease states were at par with levels seen in healthy controls. The interactions of apolipoprotein E validate the results and place the differential expression of the protein in Parkinson’s disease and schizophrenia in the right perspective. Conclusion: Apolipoprotein E concentration across the dopaminergic spectrum suggests that it can be pursued not only as a potential biomarker in schizophrenia and Parkinson’s disease, but can also be an effective tool for clinicians to determine efficacy of drug-based therapy.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 ◽  
Author(s):  
Song’an Shang ◽  
Hongying Zhang ◽  
Yuan Feng ◽  
Jingtao Wu ◽  
Weiqiang Dou ◽  
...  

Background: Cognitive deficits are prominent non-motor symptoms in Parkinson’s disease (PD) and have been shown to involve the neurovascular unit (NVU). However, there is a lack of sufficient neuroimaging research on the associated modulating mechanisms. The objective of this study was to identify the contribution of neurovascular decoupling to the pathogenesis of cognitive decline in PD.Methods: Regional homogeneity (ReHo), a measure of neuronal activity, and cerebral blood flow (CBF), a measure of vascular responses, were obtained from patients with PD with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and normal cognition (NC) as well as matched healthy controls (HCs). Imaging metrics of neurovascular coupling (global and regional CBF-ReHo correlation coefficients and CBF-ReHo ratios) were compared among the groups.Results: Neurovascular coupling was impaired in patients with PD-MCI with a decreased global CBF-ReHo correlation coefficient relative to HC subjects (P &lt; 0.05). Regional dysregulation was specific to the PD-MCI group and localized to the right middle frontal gyrus, right middle cingulate cortex, right middle occipital gyrus, right inferior parietal gyrus, right supramarginal gyrus, and right angular gyrus (P &lt; 0.05). Compared with HC subjects, patients with PD-MCI showed higher CBF-ReHo ratios in the bilateral lingual gyri (LG), bilateral putamen, and left postcentral gyrus and lower CBF-ReHo ratios in the right superior temporal gyrus, bilateral middle temporal gyri, bilateral parahippocampal gyri, and right inferior frontal gyrus. Relative to the HC and PD-NC groups, the PD-MCI group showed an increased CBF-ReHo ratio in the left LG, which was correlated with poor visual–spatial performance (r = −0.36 and P = 0.014).Conclusion: The involvement of neurovascular decoupling in cognitive impairment in PD is regionally specific and most prominent in the visual–spatial cortices, which could potentially provide a complementary understanding of the pathophysiological mechanisms underlying cognitive deficits in PD.


2018 ◽  
Vol 55 ◽  
pp. 128-133 ◽  
Author(s):  
Angus D. Macleod ◽  
Rachel Henery ◽  
Paul C. Nwajiugo ◽  
Nicholas W. Scott ◽  
Robert Caslake ◽  
...  

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