Thesis defense Ana Lima (Donders series 371)

26 March 2019

Promotor: prof. dr. B. Bloem
Co-promotor: dr. M. Faber

Quantifying Parkinson's Disease: The use of technology for objective assessment of motor symptoms

People with Parkinson’s disease (PD) usually visit a neurologist twice a year for specialized care. During those consultations, neurologists evaluate symptoms and their impact to choose the best treatment. However, short evaluations do not provide a complete picture of how people function in daily-life. Technology offers the possibility to continuously evaluate symptoms in daily-life. This thesis investigated whether technology (a smartphone, a smartwatch and a necklace) could be used by people with PD in daily-life. Results presented in this thesis showed that people with PD, including older or more severely affected, are able to use technology to collect information about their symptoms. Furthermore, by using data collected with those technologies, it is demonstrated that medication intake does not change the amount of minutes a person with PD walks daily. Finally, it is shown that people with PD fall more often than elderly of the same age and gender.