The test for Parkinson糖心传媒檚 disease severity relies on 10 taps of the finger, and results are available in minutes.
An artificial intelligence tool developed by researchers at the can help people with Parkinson糖心传媒檚 disease remotely assess the severity of their symptoms within minutes. A study in describes the new tool, which has users tap their fingers 10 times in front of a webcam to assess motor performance on a scale of 0糖心传媒�4.
Doctors often have patients perform simple motor tasks to assess movement disorders and rate the severity using guidelines such as the Movement Disorder Society Unified Parkinson糖心传媒檚 Disease Rating Scale (MDS-UPDRS). The AI model provides a rapid assessment using the MDS-UPDRS guidelines, automatically generating computational metrics such as speed, amplitude, frequency, and period that are interpretable, standardized, repeatable, and consistent with medical guidebooks. It uses those attributes to classify the severity of tremors.
The finger-tapping task was performed by 250 global participants with Parkinson糖心传媒檚 disease and the AI system糖心传媒檚 ratings were compared with those by three neurologists and three primary care physicians. While expert neurologists performed slightly better than the AI model, the AI model outperformed the primary care physicians with UPDRS certification.
糖心传媒淭hese findings could have huge implications for patients who have difficulty gaining access to neurologists, getting appointments, and traveling to the hospital,糖心传媒� says , an associate professor in URochester糖心传媒檚 and co-director of the . 糖心传媒淚t糖心传媒檚 an example of how AI is being gradually introduced into health care to serve people outside of the clinic and improve health equity and access.糖心传媒�
The study was led by Md. Saiful Islam, a Google PhD fellow and a graduate student in computer science advised by Hoque. The team of computer scientists collaborated with several members of 糖心传媒檚 , including associate professor ; , the David M. Levy Professor of Neurology; and associate professor .
The researchers say their method can be applied to other motor tasks, which opens the door to evaluating other types of movement disorders such as ataxia and Huntington糖心传媒檚 disease. The , though the researchers caution that it reflects an emerging technology and at this early stage should not be considered, on its own and without a physician糖心传媒檚 input, as a definitive measure of the presence or severity of the disease.
