Parkinson’s, as we all know, is a serious ailment for which there has not been a cure yet. What makes the ailment even more intimidating is that the symptoms keep varying from person to person and we never know in what way is going to affect the patient. Wave, as our team is called, is trying to make someone suffering from parkinson’s and their caregiver’s lives easier using technology that we have today at our disposal.
The first signs of someone having parkinson’s are the motor symptoms. These symptoms include essential tremors in hands and other parts of the body. These symptoms further advance overtime enough that it makes it difficult for them to perform the easiest of daily tasks. The symptoms occur when the level of dopamine, the chemical responsible for body movement coordination, reduces in the brain. Medication is used to replenish the dopamine levels or fake the action of the dopamine.
With our prototype, we propose to make the lives of someone with parkinson’s simpler. Our prototype will be wearables that can monitor the motor symptoms of the patient. Our prototype will monitor the common symptoms like tremor and stiffness in the human body, and if the symptoms are showing an uncommon behaviour, the prototype can beam the information to the smartphone to remind the patient or the caregiver to take the medicines to or to see the neurologist.
Our goal is to help someone who has recently started showing symptoms of parkinson’s to track their motor symptoms and also prolong the initial stage as much as possible.
A lot of research-based apps and services are available today that help in better understanding the symptoms of Parkinson’s. Apps like mPower and Parkinson’s Central are monitoring the patient’s health from their rdaily movements and tasks along with daily or weekly surveys. With our prototype, we not only propose to help in tracking symptoms to better understand the disease but we also want to help the patient in the best way possible.