Mobile Health Program Offers Hope to Parkinson’s Patients

There’s a silver lining to the COVID-19 pandemic after all.

Mobile health applications have helped patients maintain their health over the past two years while also ensuring that medical providers are not stretched too thin. Various applications have become more popular within the healthcare arena, such as video meetings (powered by Zoom, Microsoft Team, etc.) or cell phone programs that track vaccination status, according to GlobalData, a worldwide data and analytics company. 
 
“Recently mobile health applications have shown great promise in the field of cognitive function and mental health. Biogen, Apple, and the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) have teamed up to create a mobile health program that will help detect and track various health issues such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s disease, major depressive order, and more,” said Alexandra Murdoch, a medical devices analyst at GlobalData.
 
GlobalData’s Neuromodulation Devices model database shows that approximately 14.7 percent of the U.S. population has been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease as of 2021, and that number is projected to grow to 16.1 percent by 2030. In addition, approximately 7 percent of the U.S. population has been diagnosed with major depressive disorder in 2021, which is projected to decrease slightly to 6.8 percemnt by 2030. 
 
The mobile health program would use Apple Watches and other wearable technology paired with an iPhone to track data and search for connections between cell phone use, physical activity, and cognitive function. The program is still in the research phase and is not available to the public yet; the companies are aiming to recruit 3000 participants to test the program out prior to releasing it, with half of the participants at high risk of cognitive impairment. The goal is to determine if and how differently people experiencing cognitive impairment use their devices. 
 
“While the program is not officially available yet to most, it will be incredibly helpful when it is launched. The ability to detect these conditions early will help to diagnose and treat them more effectively. Further, the program could be used in research on a large scale to ultimately help contribute to prevention measures,” Murdoch said.