Prof. Dr. Bas Bloem (Radboud university medical center) is a leading expert worldwide in the field of Parkinson’s disease. Bloem is also an advocate for moving from traditional hospital care to care at home. He believes that care should come to the patient instead of the patient always going to the hospital and he sees an important role for new health technology and AI.
By using wearable sensors and other technologies to continuously monitor patients’ health, especially at home, he hopes to optimize treatments and give patients more control over their own care – giving his – enter a personal environment with access to all medical data. In the cover story of ICT & health magazine 5 you can read more about Bloem’s interest in the development of the profession, the undoubted role of technology and the importance of research such as Dr Luc Evers .
Optimistic technology
Despite the rapid progression of Parkinson’s disease, Bloem is optimistic about his treatment. He mainly sees opportunities in the use of new health technologies and AI, as Parkinson’s disease is highly measurable. In this context, it emphasizes the importance of studies such as van van dr. Luc Evers met wearable sensors.
Evers’ research – which began in 2017 – focuses on the use of digital tools to improve the lives of people with Parkinson’s disease. This research on how technology can be used to better monitor symptoms, optimize treatments and give patients more control over their own care is valuable for improving the quality of life of people with this disease.
Reliable Algorithms
“A major challenge in this context is developing reliable algorithms that provide reliable information about working at home, for example,” says Bloem. “You can measure vibration (vibration) in the laboratory under perfect conditions and develop an algorithm for this. But at home there is a place for all kinds of variables (invisible): the cat suddenly jumps at your feet, other people are walking around. There is a lot of scope for sound.
According to Bloem, a second challenge is medication compliance: will people regularly wear the sensors? There are many types of wearable sensors, but experience shows that the less burdensome the method, the more likely people will continue to use them faithfully. “So a smartwatch is one of the most accessible ways to measure, just because people are usually used to wearing a watch. “
Promising tests
According to Bloem, there are also promising experiments with smart homes, where people can be measured through a device on the wall. Patients do not need to wear anything themselves for this. The downside is that it doesn’t work outside the door. So a combination of smart homes, wearable sensors and digital diaries is needed, as pain, for example, is not easy to measure with a sensor.
“Symptoms such as tremors, walking, falling, etc., are all motor-related and therefore easier to measure with senses. But these motor symptoms are only the tip of the iceberg in Parkinson’s disease. key role and cannot always be measured by senses, such as pain or contraction to make decisions about the extent to which someone is suffering from an injury.”
Solve it yourself
But there are also non-motor issues such as sleep, heart rhythm or skin impedance, which can of course be measured by sensors, Bloem explains. Ideally, all this information ends up in the dashboard that the patient also has access to. Then people can identify things that they can solve themselves.
Bloem about this: “Compare it to the dashboard of your car where you can see what you can build yourself, but where you can also see the warning signs that you need to go to the garage (read: the professional care provider). This system is necessary for the future, because the system of visiting the specialist in the hospital a few times a year as a standard is unsustainable in the short term.”
Read the cover story in issue 5 of ICT&health, which will be published around 25 October.
2024-10-23 09:30:00
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