Investigators:
Hamed Tabkhi, ForesightCares Inc.
Mona Azarbayjani, ForesightCares Inc.
Sanjay Iyer, Memory & Movement Charlotte
MassAITC Cohort: Year 3 (Aging)
Limited access to movement disorder specialists, particularly in rural and underserved areas, is a pressing challenge for Parkinson’s disease (PD) patients. Doctors need to understand the varying symptoms of PD to adjust treatments accurately. Home-based monitoring emerges as a potent solution, offering real-time and comprehensive insights into the disease’s progression. Such monitoring is especially crucial in rural settings where infrequent clinical visits might miss critical insights into the disease’s progression, making it essential to bridge this care gap.
This pilot is centered around the usability of AI and empowering caregivers to perform routine AI-based assessments independently. Grounded on our existing AVA Minimum Viable Product (MVP), this pilot primarily seeks to evaluate AVA’s potential for home-based monitoring by caregivers without any intervention or changes in the treatment plan. Partnering with “Memory & Movement,” a clinic specializing in PD, we aim to assess the feasibility of AVA in real-world settings. We will involve 35 older adult PD patients and their caregivers in this evaluation, ensuring inclusivity by including 15 participants from underserved and rural communities.
The proposed effort includes enhancing the app with a user-centric design based on feedback from older PD patients and caregivers, improving AI for precise hand movement detection, and redesigning the user interface to achieve a User-Centric Customization of the AVA App for PD Patients and Their Caregivers: This aim refines the current AVA into a highly functional technology with a visually appealing and user-centric interface that facilitates seamless motor function assessment for individuals with PD.