New app to help people with Parkinson’s Disease manage their medication
Scientists at Birkbeck will help develop an app to aid medicine management.
Scientists at Birkbeck will be working with software company uMotif and the Cure Parkinson’s Trust to develop a smartphone app to help people with Parkinson’s Disease to track their symptoms and general well-being; give them medication reminders; and provide cognitive testing games.
The project, funded by the Department of Health, aims to reduce the personal, social and economic costs incurred when patients deviate from their prescribed treatment regime.
Dr Jon Stamford, from the Cure Parkinson’s Trust said: “Non-compliance with medicine regimes can have negative impacts for patients, their families and the wider NHS. Finding ways to keep people on track with their medication, as well as keeping a record of their symptoms plays a very useful role in managing the condition.”
uMotif will design and develop the app, and Dr Caspar Addyman, from Birkbeck’s Department of Psychological Sciences, will develop the cognitive tests within the app, and lead a controlled trial with a group of people with Parkinson’s disease to test to what degree the app can support this group to improve their medicine management.
Dr Addyman said: “Birkbeck are working with uMotif to create an app that will actually be useful to patients. Good design and clever technology are only half the story. We also need evidence that it helps patients and that they will use it. We will be running a randomised control trial to assess the app’s effectiveness and conducting in-depth interviews with patients and experts to help us improve the app’s design and functionality.”
Volunteers with Parkinson’s disease required for project
The project partners are seeking input from a range of people with Parkinson’s disease and their carers to inform the design and build of the application.
Any patient, researcher, clinician, carer or other interested person should contact the team for more information and involvement.
Partner contact details
- Bruce Hellman, uMotif, bruce@uMotif.com, @uMotif
- Jon Stamford, Cure Parkinson’s Trust, jon.stamford@parkinsonsmovement.com
- Caspar Addyman, Birkbeck, University of London, c.addyman@bbk.ac.uk