Parkinson's wearables - cautious progress

The Times has a story today about a plan to use smartwatches to improve the treatment of people with Parkinson’s. It may sound familiar - back in April I did a bit of mild debunking of a similar story, suggesting that it was unlikely that all 145,000 of us with Parkinson’s in the UK were going to be given the PersonalKinetigraph (PKG) smartwatch.

But to be fair there is big news in the Times story - the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) has now given its seal of approval to the PKG and four other wearable devices that measure symptoms of Parkinson’s.

NICE says the information collected by such devices “may more accurately record a person’s symptoms than a clinical assessment during in-person appointments and help inform medication decisions and follow up treatment such as physiotherapy.”

We all know as PwPs how long we wait between appointments with our neurologists and how difficult it is to answer the question “so how have you been?” So it’s exciting to hear that wearable technology could provide a much clearer picture.

But just a word of caution before assuming that everyone is going to get a shiny new gadget. There is a caveat in NICE’s statement. Mark Chapman, its interim director of Medical Technology, says providing wearables to people with Parkinson’s could have a transformative effect on their care.

“However there is uncertainty in the evidence at present on these five promising technologies which is why the committee has conditionally recommended their use by the NHS while data is collected to eliminate these evidence gaps.”

So - more data needed on the accuracy of the data collected before NICE gives an unconditional recommendation. It’s also important to remember that nobody will get the PKG watch to keep. It’s intended to be used for just six days to collect data on your symptoms and then returned to the doctor. According to. the Times that will cost the NHS around £225 for each patient, up from the figure of £175 I was given in April.

I remain really excited about the potential of wearable technology. But I’ve just heard that a distant relative who fears he has Parkinson’s has been told that he will have to wait 12 months for an appointment with a neurologist. Any technology that could speed things up is to be welcomed - but not if it makes it even harder to get face to face time with a doctor.

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