Parkinson’s care project highly commended in national awards

The innovative Home-Based Parkinson’s Care project, supported by the South West Academic Health Science Network (AHSN), has been highly commended in the Digital Innovation category of this year’s BMJ Awards. Home-Based Parkinson’s Care is implementing smart and wearable technology to empower Parkinson’s patients to monitor their condition at home.

‘Revolutionary’ Parkinson’s project supported by South West AHSN

Launched in 2019 aided by SWAHSN, this inventive project focused on co-designing a new service to help Parkinson’s patients, carers and healthcare staff monitor a person’s condition remotely.

Piloted in Devon and Cornwall this initiative has been spread across the UK, led by the University of Plymouth and University Hospitals Plymouth NHS Trust (UHPNT). This approach ensures care remains timely and person-centred, while improving wellbeing of healthcare staff by removing some of the frustrations and isolation of the earlier system. The project included 150 patients in Plymouth, West Devon, and East Cornwall in the pilot, before being rolled out across the UK.

Led by Dr Camille Carroll, Associate Professor in the University of Plymouth with Research Assistant Emma King, the initiative was funded by The Health Foundation and a Parkinson’s UK Excellence Network Service Improvement Grant.

Learning of the BMJ Awards commendation, Dr Carroll commented,

“We have taken the first few steps towards this future. We want to inspire other services to share our journey, whilst at the same time celebrating the energy, support and efforts of our team and Parkinson’s community who are leading the way.”

Embedding smart and wearable technology into care pathways

Developed by the Global Kinetics Corporation, the PKG® (personal Kinetigraph) monitors movement symptoms of Parkinson’s and processes them through a proprietary algorithm. It provides the clinical team with detailed data regarding symptoms such as speed of movement, tremor, and activity levels to support clinical decision making. The specialist Parkinson’s team then work remotely, ensuring that help – including calls or clinic appointments – can be offered when needed.

Empower people with Parkinson’s and deliver sustainable health care

This advancement works towards reducing the burden of attending hospital clinics and ensures appropriate and timely contact with health services which aims to improve the quality of life for people with Parkinson’s and their care partners.

In turn, this allows a resilient and sustainable health service for a disease that is increasing in prevalence and complexity, enabling a service that works better for healthcare staff.

Find out more about Home-Based Parkinson’s Care here.