PDapp - A mobile solution for continuous follow-up of Parkinson's disease patients

Abstract

Parkinson's disease is a neurodegenerative disorder that affects dopamine-producing ("dopaminergic") neurons predominately in a specific area of the brain called substantia nigra. Symptoms develop slowly over the years, and the disease's progression is often different from person to person. Deep Brain Stimulation is a common practice in the later stages of the disease as treatment. The iHandU system is a novel, comfortable, and wireless device, designed to classify the wrist rigidity during this practice. PDapp is a mobile app solution to bring the iHandU's capabilities out of the surgery room and help patients with a continuous follow up of their disease's progression through time. It strives to connect the patients and their doctors outside of the clinical environment. It provides patients with a high-quality mobile application for managing their disease with medication and tests, as well as keep their doctors informed of important events related to the disease. On the other hand, the doctors have access to a specialised dashboard to get an overview of all their patients' history and their most recent events. The system required will be composed of a mobile application, a web platform to host the dashboard, and a cloud-based database to persist all the data necessary. By the end of this project, we should have a system capable of successfully integrating a mobile application for the patients, a dashboard for the doctor, and the iHandU for performing tests. The mobile app should be highly usable and interactive for users with Parkinson's disease, and the dashboard should be focused and clean to provide the doctors with the best overview of their patients and current situations. A system like PDapp can have a significant impact on the lives of these patients by easing their access to relevant tools and connecting them to their doctors whenever needed.