Insights on a New Online AI-Based Test for Parkinson’s Disease SeverityBrain Signals Linked to Good Memory Performance

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’s 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’s disease and the AI system’s 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.

The AI-based Parkinson’s disease severity test generates computational metrics such as speed, amplitude, frequency, and period, and uses those attributes to classify the severity of tremors. 

“These findings could have huge implications for patients who have difficulty gaining access to neurologists, getting appointments, and traveling to the hospital,” says Ehsan Hoque, co-director of the Rochester Human-Computer Interaction Laboratory. 

The new Parkinson’s disease assessment is available online, 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’s input, as a definitive measure of the presence or severity of the disease.

---

Sources:

Md Saiful Islam, Wasifur Rahman, Abdelrahman Abdelkader, Sangwu Lee, Phillip T. Yang, Jennifer Lynn Purks, Jamie Lynn Adams, Ruth B. Schneider, Earl Ray Dorsey, Ehsan Hoque. Using AI to measure Parkinson’s disease severity at home. npj Digital Medicine, 2023; 6 (1) DOI: 10.1038/s41746-023-00905-9

University of Rochester. “Online AI-based test for Parkinson’s disease severity shows promising results.” ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 7 September 2023. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/09/230907130356.htm>.

Materials provided by University of Rochester. Original written by Luke Auburn. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.

Images from:

Photo by Clemet Helardot

https://unsplash.com/photos/95YRwf6CNw8