A "Which?" Guide to Parkinson's Tech

As a former* technology journalist with Parkinson’s I get told about lots of gadgets designed to help people dealing with the neurological disease - and I have tried quite a few of them. Many, like the Cue-1 device and the Strolll augmented reality system, are designed to improve your gait while a whole host of wearables and smartphone apps aim to monitor your symptoms and give you advice about handling Parkinson’s.

It is a confusing picture - some of these gadgets will undoubtedly be helpful, others will take large sums of money from vulnerable shoppers and deliver very little. So I am really happy to see that Parkinson’s UK has launched its Tech Guide this week, with the aim of giving people the information they need as they navigate this market.

The charity says its mission with the Tech Guide is to:

“Help people with Parkinson’s to discover tech that could improve their quality of life, and give them the context and assurance to help them choose the right solutions for them.”

The guide describes each product, gives them a price rating from free to ££££, and tells you what the gadget aims to achieve. The Cue-I, for instance, gets a £££ rating ( it now costs £795 + VAT) and is described as “a wearable, chest-mounted device that combines the principles of focused vibrotactile stimulation and cueing to help improve motor performance and alleviate freezing of gait for people with Parkinson’s.”

At first sight, the Tech Guide is not quite the ‘Which?’ for Parkinson’s gadgets that I had imagined - it is full of information, but almost devoid of opinion. There is a section called Community Views for comments on the gadget but at this early stage it was empty for all the products I browsed through.

But when I spoke to Parkinson’s UK a spokeswoman explained that the charity had recruited a reviewer pool made up of people with Parkinson’s. Their reviews are gradually going to pop up on the site and so far there are four. They cover one physical product, the LaserCane walking stick, and three apps, two of which are free - Parkinson’s ON, which I wrote about two years ago, and My Moves Matter - and Swallow Prompt which for just 99p helps people who struggle to control their saliva.

The review for the LaserCane walking stick shows just how useful this Tech Guide could be, giving an objective description of the product without being afraid to point out its shortcomings.It is:

“an expensive and robust walking stick with a visual cueing laser that can help during some freezing episodes but can only be used indoors.”

That is just the overview of a lengthy review that goes into some detail but convinces me that when I come very soon to start walking with a stick it won’t be a £275 one that cannot be taken outside and only really works in the dark.

Overall then, my review of the Parkinson’s UK Tech Guide is that it is a slow but solid start towards building what could be an invaluable resource for the Parkinson’s community. And don’t forget that we gadget lovers can all help by sharing our own experiences with a product on the community views page.

*I say “former technology journalist” but this Substack is a way of keeping my hand in, Which reminds me….