Apple Watch can help track Parkinson's disease symptoms: study(statnews.com)
statnews.com
Apple Watch can help track Parkinson's disease symptoms: study
https://www.statnews.com/2021/02/03/apple-watch-parkinsons-disease-tremor/
22 comments
As someone with Essential Tremor, I wonder if this could be used along with the other sensors in the watch to help figure out when the tremor seems exacerbated or less severe.
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The article mentions: "The paper also suggests the tool helped pinpoint people who slipped on medication adherence, as well as cases in which a person might benefit from a modified medication regimen."
I'm not sure that quote is relevant to ET, though, since I'd wager most who have ET do not take medication for it. Well, that's anecdotal; I don't take anything for it.
I don't know much about ET, but Parkinson's medication increases dosage based on worsening symptoms, so this seems pretty helpful in keeping symptoms and medication in check.
How is ET diagnosed separately from PD?
I’m not a doctor, just a third (or longer) generation person with essential tremors on the paternal line. Essential tremors are generally diagnosed by observing that the tremors occur when trying to do things. Parkinson’s is diagnosed when the tremors occur while resting, doing nothing, but more importantly, Parkinson’s has other symptoms as it affects many pets of your body.
Essential tremors worsen with age, and are really annoying, but they won’t shorten your life. Parkinson’s is a progressive disease that will shorten your life, and is managed differently. So the distinction between the two is not merely academic, even though there is overlap in how the shaking is managed.
Essential tremors worsen with age, and are really annoying, but they won’t shorten your life. Parkinson’s is a progressive disease that will shorten your life, and is managed differently. So the distinction between the two is not merely academic, even though there is overlap in how the shaking is managed.
Fair question and to be honest I'm not entirely sure.
All I know is that I've had tremors since maybe 10 or so years old, went to a pediatric (I believe) neurologist during high school (over 10 years ago) and they diagnosed it as that.
My grandfather has had tremors most of his life but no PD. We always attributed it to PTSD from the Holocaust and then fighting in WWII (came with the Americans to Omaha Beach on D-Day and nearly drowned, later was captured, etc.) but the fact that I clearly never experienced those things must possibly mean it's genetic. Though nobody else in my immediate family has it.
All I know is that I've had tremors since maybe 10 or so years old, went to a pediatric (I believe) neurologist during high school (over 10 years ago) and they diagnosed it as that.
My grandfather has had tremors most of his life but no PD. We always attributed it to PTSD from the Holocaust and then fighting in WWII (came with the Americans to Omaha Beach on D-Day and nearly drowned, later was captured, etc.) but the fact that I clearly never experienced those things must possibly mean it's genetic. Though nobody else in my immediate family has it.
Anyone have a good resource on understanding the policies that govern the ownership and handling of data collected by an Apple Watch? I quite like that they can be used for tracking sleep, heart rate, and many other health-related items. Ideally, I'd have full control over how these valuable, longitudinal datasets I generate are handled and used. But I'm skeptical that's anywhere near the case.
If akathisia from SSRIs is supposedly associated with adolescent mass shootings, I wonder if Apple Watch can predict this also. E.g.:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3513220/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3513220/
I'm sorry but when the solution to your research paper is consumer technology sold by the company you work for, you are just advertising not innovating. Nothing about the apple watch itself is particularly useful for this, its just the fact that it goes on your wrist and has an accelerometer plugged into a computer with networking capabilities. (Wow, an accelerometer attached to your wrist can tell if you have tremors! Who knew?!?) The other 90% of the functionality of the watch is totally unnecessary. If apple actually cared they would create a new device for this particular use case.
You might have missed it, but they’ve publicised every year the advances in ResearchKit. It’s been around for 6 years now, and has influenced the design of several generations of watches. They have partnerships with various hospitals and universities, and severalstudies that were made based on data from Apple Watches.
You are disingenuous when you reduce the device to an accelerometer with a network chip. But even so, the problem with a lot of clinical studies is not the complex equipment required. Instead, it’s enrolment, and the fact that you have to go to a lab to perform tests and that nothing that happens outside these tests is measured. This could be gait, heartbeat, sleep patterns, or a lot of other things. The fact that people keep their Apple Watches on their wrist all the time, and that it’s easy to enrol and that there are significant data protection measures in places helps with the most complicated aspects of running a large-scale study.
I would suggest reading at least a Wikipedia article before spewing uninformed bullshit.
You are disingenuous when you reduce the device to an accelerometer with a network chip. But even so, the problem with a lot of clinical studies is not the complex equipment required. Instead, it’s enrolment, and the fact that you have to go to a lab to perform tests and that nothing that happens outside these tests is measured. This could be gait, heartbeat, sleep patterns, or a lot of other things. The fact that people keep their Apple Watches on their wrist all the time, and that it’s easy to enrol and that there are significant data protection measures in places helps with the most complicated aspects of running a large-scale study.
I would suggest reading at least a Wikipedia article before spewing uninformed bullshit.
>You might have missed it
I did miss that. Would love a citation.
>You are disingenuous
It doesn't make sense to say that I might have missed something then accuse me of being disingenuous. If what Apple is doing is really groundbreaking, then I really did miss something, and I'm not being disingenuous by thinking this article is BS. My response should serve as further proof of my GENUINITY.
Your second paragraph was hard to follow. I understand there is a wide variety of applications for Apple's 'watch' and that its 'cutting edge technology'. My issue has to do with the funny connection between a product that Apple markets to consumers and faux medical research articles created for the sole purpose of a citation in a marketing article. Seems kind of DISINGENUOUS of apple and this 'news' site.
>ResearchKit (an app in the apple store)
>It's easy to enroll
>publicized every year
>partnerships with various hospitals
Marketing
Enrollment has 2 Ls by the way.
I did miss that. Would love a citation.
>You are disingenuous
It doesn't make sense to say that I might have missed something then accuse me of being disingenuous. If what Apple is doing is really groundbreaking, then I really did miss something, and I'm not being disingenuous by thinking this article is BS. My response should serve as further proof of my GENUINITY.
Your second paragraph was hard to follow. I understand there is a wide variety of applications for Apple's 'watch' and that its 'cutting edge technology'. My issue has to do with the funny connection between a product that Apple markets to consumers and faux medical research articles created for the sole purpose of a citation in a marketing article. Seems kind of DISINGENUOUS of apple and this 'news' site.
>ResearchKit (an app in the apple store)
>It's easy to enroll
>publicized every year
>partnerships with various hospitals
Marketing
Enrollment has 2 Ls by the way.
> I did miss that. Would love a citation.
See every Apple Watch introduction keynote since 2015.
Also, straight from the horse's mouth: https://developer.apple.com/design/human-interface-guideline...
Layman description on a mainstream website, from around when it was released: https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2015/03/resea... https://arstechnica.com/science/2015/04/inside-apples-resear...
As an example, announcement for one of the medical studies: http://med.stanford.edu/news/all-news/2019/11/through-apple-...
> It doesn't make sense to say that I might have missed something then accuse me of being disingenuous
Not knowing is one thing. Not knowing, assuming the worse, and then taking your assumption for granted, is disingenuous. There would have been nothing wrong with asking instead of asserting.
> Your second paragraph was hard to follow.
Fair enough. Wording could be better.
> I understand there is a wide variety of applications for Apple's 'watch' and that its 'cutting edge technology'
The point of the Apple Watch is not that it's cutting edge, it's that it reduces friction in this sort of studies. It's also on and worn 24/7 so data is acquired around the clock, which is never the case in a large clinical study as measuring equipment tend to be expensive, bulky and inconvenient. As they (almost) say, the best sensor is the one you have with you.
> My issue has to do with the funny connection between a product that Apple markets to consumers and faux medical research articles created for the sole purpose of a citation in a marketing article.
See, that's disingenuous. You admitted that you were not really aware of it, and now you know that the studies are fake and just for press releases.
>ResearchKit (an app in the apple store)
ResearchKit is not an app on the App Store. It's one of the frameworks that's used in these studies.
>It's easy to enrol
Enroling is a notorious barrier to entry, it is objectively easier to tap a button on a phone app to enrol compared to walking to a clinic somewhere in the US and sign paperwork.
>publicised every year
Yearly publicity was addressing your state of ignorance. That's not marketing, it means that information is out there should you need it.
>partnerships with various hospitals
Fair enough, that's communication. Still does not support your assumptions, though.
> Enrollment has 2 Ls by the way.
Let's see...
https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/enrol?q=... :
enrol verb [ I or T ] UK (US enroll)
See every Apple Watch introduction keynote since 2015.
Also, straight from the horse's mouth: https://developer.apple.com/design/human-interface-guideline...
Layman description on a mainstream website, from around when it was released: https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2015/03/resea... https://arstechnica.com/science/2015/04/inside-apples-resear...
As an example, announcement for one of the medical studies: http://med.stanford.edu/news/all-news/2019/11/through-apple-...
> It doesn't make sense to say that I might have missed something then accuse me of being disingenuous
Not knowing is one thing. Not knowing, assuming the worse, and then taking your assumption for granted, is disingenuous. There would have been nothing wrong with asking instead of asserting.
> Your second paragraph was hard to follow.
Fair enough. Wording could be better.
> I understand there is a wide variety of applications for Apple's 'watch' and that its 'cutting edge technology'
The point of the Apple Watch is not that it's cutting edge, it's that it reduces friction in this sort of studies. It's also on and worn 24/7 so data is acquired around the clock, which is never the case in a large clinical study as measuring equipment tend to be expensive, bulky and inconvenient. As they (almost) say, the best sensor is the one you have with you.
> My issue has to do with the funny connection between a product that Apple markets to consumers and faux medical research articles created for the sole purpose of a citation in a marketing article.
See, that's disingenuous. You admitted that you were not really aware of it, and now you know that the studies are fake and just for press releases.
>ResearchKit (an app in the apple store)
ResearchKit is not an app on the App Store. It's one of the frameworks that's used in these studies.
>It's easy to enrol
Enroling is a notorious barrier to entry, it is objectively easier to tap a button on a phone app to enrol compared to walking to a clinic somewhere in the US and sign paperwork.
>publicised every year
Yearly publicity was addressing your state of ignorance. That's not marketing, it means that information is out there should you need it.
>partnerships with various hospitals
Fair enough, that's communication. Still does not support your assumptions, though.
> Enrollment has 2 Ls by the way.
Let's see...
https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/enrol?q=... :
enrol verb [ I or T ] UK (US enroll)
Apple has an opt-in Research app, and has built relationships with a number of orgs in the US doing medical research, and has added additional sensors based on feedback from those orgs.
There is quite a bit special about the Apple Watch itself well beyond the accelerometer, in software, in hardware, and in the work required to maintain privacy while sharing collective information with organizations devoted to researching diseases.
There is quite a bit special about the Apple Watch itself well beyond the accelerometer, in software, in hardware, and in the work required to maintain privacy while sharing collective information with organizations devoted to researching diseases.
Marketing has reached new levels
You don't actually know this.
You're uncharitably assuming this, without any basis.
Apple's custom silicon, which includes the Watch line, has the best performance / power ratio in the entire business.
That might be important here. Do you know that it isn't? Of course you don't.
You're uncharitably assuming this, without any basis.
Apple's custom silicon, which includes the Watch line, has the best performance / power ratio in the entire business.
That might be important here. Do you know that it isn't? Of course you don't.
>You're uncharitably assuming this
Why should I be charitable towards apple?
>Apple's custom silicon
Sounds like more marketing for Apple.
Why should I be charitable towards apple?
>Apple's custom silicon
Sounds like more marketing for Apple.
> its just the fact that it goes on your wrist and has an accelerometer plugged into a computer
That's incredibly underselling it as just an accelerometer, but missing the fact that it's not an off-the-shelf accelerometer and that there's a very capable computer inside it (plus an even more powerful computer in a pocket not too far away) to do the heavy data-processing required.
> If apple actually cared they would create a new device for this particular use case.
This theoretical device would have a smaller user base and would also cost an order of magnitude more. The magic of the Apple Watch is that it's a fairly inexpensive (and hence accessible) multi-purpose personal device used by millions.
That's incredibly underselling it as just an accelerometer, but missing the fact that it's not an off-the-shelf accelerometer and that there's a very capable computer inside it (plus an even more powerful computer in a pocket not too far away) to do the heavy data-processing required.
> If apple actually cared they would create a new device for this particular use case.
This theoretical device would have a smaller user base and would also cost an order of magnitude more. The magic of the Apple Watch is that it's a fairly inexpensive (and hence accessible) multi-purpose personal device used by millions.
> We developed the Motor fluctuations Monitor for Parkinson’s Disease (MM4PD), an ambulatory monitoring system that used smartwatch inertial sensors to continuously track fluctuations in resting tremor and dyskinesia.
> MM4PD captured symptom changes in response to treatment that matched the clinician’s expectations in 94% of evaluated subjects. In the remaining 6% of cases, symptom data from MM4PD identified opportunities to make improvements in pharmacologic strategy.
[1] https://stm.sciencemag.org/content/13/579/eabd7865