Study Finds PKG Movement Recording System Effective for Routine Clinical Care of Parkinson

The Personal KinetiGraph (PKG) Movement Recording System may be effective for routine clinical care of patients with Parkinson disease (PD), according to recent research published by Frontiers in Neurology.

The study involved male and female patients with PD between the ages of 46 and 83 years old who were responsive to dopaminergic therapy and were walking without the use of a walking aid.

“Physicians are challenged to base their diagnoses and treatment plans on unreliable self-reported symptoms, even when used in conjunction to validated assessments such as the Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale (UPDRS) and clinical exams,” explained the authors. “Wearable technology may provide clinicians objective measures of motor problems to supplement current subjective methods. Global Kinetics Corporation (GKC) has developed a watch-device called the Personal KinetiGraph (PKG) that records movements and provides patients medication dosing reminders.”

The researchers studied 63 PD patients over the course of 85 routine care visits and evaluated the clinical utility of the PKG. Prior to their visits, the patients wore the device for 6 continuous days. The data from the PKG was used to produce a report for the physicians to compare their original assessments to.

The data provided insights for treatment plans in 79% of patients across 71 visits. Additionally, the physicians found improved patient dialogue in 59% of visits and improved ability to assess treatment impact in 38% of visits. There was also improved motor assessment in 33% of visits, according to the researchers.

“The PKG system provided clinical utility through improved characterization of motor manifestations of Parkinson's disease, both the type and timing,” noted the authors. “This served to improve physician-patient dialogue and provide insight to clinicians and patients to inform treatment impact and decisions. Additionally, patients who wore the PKG watch felt the medication administration reminders were valuable.”

The results also revealed that patient stated in 82% of responses that they agreed or strongly agreed in PKG training, usability, performance, and satisfaction and 39% of responses revealed that the PKG had a very valuable impact on their care.

The authors suggested the need for future research with PKG as a replacement for patient diaries in clinical trials as well as further assessment of PKG measures in correlation with scales for patient quality of life.

Reference

Joshi R, Bronstein J, Keener A, et al. PKG movement recording system use shows promise in routine clinical care of patients with Parkinson's disease [published online October 1, 2019]. Frontiers in Neurology. doi: 10.3389/fneur.2019.01027.