New charity-funded technology improves care of Parkinson’s patients

People with living with Parkinson’s could see their care transformed thanks to a new charity-funded initiative involving wearable technology.

The project run by University Hospitals of North Midlands NHS Trust (UHNM) will see patients use a wrist-worn smartwatch which relays information on tremors and other symptoms to a specialist Parkinson’s care team.

Information gathered from the smartwatches over the period of seven days will be used to identify and implement any required changes to therapy.

UHNM was able to purchase 50 watches thanks to a £10,000 grant from UHNM Charity.

Louise Brownsill, Parkinson’s Disease Nurse at UHNM said: “These new devices will help reduce the burden on our Parkinson’s patients who were previously relied upon to manually provide information to us as part of their treatment. The watches give us a quick, easy and accurate way of monitoring patients remotely making life easier for those living with the condition.”  

“This is an exciting example of how technology has the potential to transform care in conditions like Parkinson’s and we would like to express our thanks to UHNM Charity supporters for enabling our patients to benefit from it.”

As well as monitoring involuntary movements and slowness of movement, the smartwatches will remind wearers to take medication.

Steve Rushton, UHNM Charity Manager said: “Having this technology available that measures the real-life aspects of Parkinson’s is fantastic for our patients and UHNM Charity was delighted to help implement it.”

If you would like to fundraise for UHNM Charity visit www.uhnmcharity.org.uk for more information, or call 01782 676444 to speak to one of the UHNM Charity team.