Pfizer and IBM have teamed-up to develop remote monitoring solutions to transform how clinicians deliver care to patients suffering from Parkinson’s disease. The experimental approach will rely on a system of sensors, mobile devices, and machine learning to provide real-time, around-the-clock disease symptom information to clinicians and researchers. The ultimate goal is to obtain a better understanding of a patient’s disease progression and medication response to help inform treatment decisions and clinical trial design.
The two parties seek to create a holistic view of a patient’s well-being by accurately measuring a variety of health indicators, including motor function, dyskinesia, cognition, sleep and daily activities such as grooming, dressing and eating. Insights from these data could also arm researchers with real-world evidence needed to help accelerate potential new and better therapies.
The ultimate goal is to obtain a better understanding of a patient’s disease progression and medication response.“We have an opportunity to potentially redefine how we think about patient outcomes and 24/7 monitoring, by combining Pfizer’s scientific, medical and regulatory expertise with IBM’s ability to integrate and interpret complex data in innovative ways,” Mikael Dolsten, M.D., Ph.D., President of Pfizer Worldwide Research and Development, said in a statement. “The key to our success will be to deliver a reliable, scalable system of measurement and analysis that would help inform our clinical programs across important areas of unmet medical need, potentially accelerating the drug development and regulatory approval processes and helping us to get better therapies to patients, faster.”
Pfizer and IBM project that the system will move into initial clinical testing quickly. The two companies will convene an external advisory board of patient groups, advocacy organizations, clinicians, and neuroscientists for guidance on the use of technology, medical devices, data management, and research protocols, and to ensure the needs of patients guide the program.
According to the World Health Organization, neurological disorders like Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease, stroke, multiple sclerosis and epilepsy impact almost one billion families around the world and account for 12 percent of total deaths globally. Approximately 60,000 Americans are diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease each year according to the Parkinson’s Disease Foundation, and an estimated seven to 10 million people suffer from the disease around the world.
As part of its efforts to advance Internet of Things (IoT) technologies in healthcare, IBM is also working with Emory University Hospital to advance predictive medicine for critical patients in the ICU, with neonatal intensive care specialists at The University of Ontario Institute of Technology, and with Medtronic to analyze real-time data from Medtronic devices to help detect important patterns and trends for people with diabetes.