Global Kinetics Corporation (GKC), a leader in digital health technology for people with Parkinson’s disease, and Parkinson’s Foundation have announced the first of over 400 patients have been enrolled in the GKC APPRISE clinical study.
This multi-centre, randomised, controlled study will assess the use of the Parkinson’s KinetiGraph (PKG) system - known as the Personal KinetiGraph in the US - for identifying patients who require a change to their clinical management plan and the platform’s ability to help improve patient outcomes.
The APPRISE study is part of the Parkinson’s Foundation Parkinson’s Outcomes Project. Data from the study will be used to build evidence that supports GKC’s strategy to achieve reimbursement with US payers.
“Our goal with the Parkinson’s Outcomes Project is to identify clinical practices that make a real difference to patient outcomes,” said Peter Schmidt, senior vice president and chief mission officer, Parkinson’s Foundation.
The PKG system is the first digital health technology to provide a continuous and objective measurement of Parkinson’s symptoms. This objective data, captured by the PKG-Watch over seven days, is combined with GKC’s analysis, to produce detailed reports that allow treating clinicians to accurately monitor Parkinson’s symptoms in relation to factors such as medication dose and timing, sleep and exercise.
“Neurologists typically ask patients to keep a written diary to track fluctuations but a device has the potential to be easier to use for the patient, easier to understand for the clinician, and more accurate,” said Schmidt. “The PKG automatically records patient symptoms with no intrusion on their daily activities, so our hope is that it will make a difference in routine care.”
This clinical study is the first to systematically evaluate the use of wearable sensors for optimising dose and timing of Parkinson’s medications as well as measuring the impact of medication changes on patient outcomes.
“From the clinician’s perspective, the value of the Parkinson’s KinetiGraph resides in the objective information provided by the PKG to guide therapeutic decisions and measure changes in patient outcomes,” said Professor Malcolm Horne, Global Kinetics’ co-founder and chief scientific officer. “The objective nature of the data allows for more informed assessment than can be achieved with clinical assessment alone. The interim results of a 2016 pilot study showed that the PKG was able to detect uncontrolled symptoms in patients that were thought to be well controlled when assessed clinically.”
He continued, “From the patient’s perspective, one of the key benefits of the PKG is the non-intrusive nature of the data collection and user friendly features such as the medication reminders. Importantly, the PKG allows people with Parkinson’s to better understand their condition and have more informed discussions with their clinicians.”