The role of PKG in patients' care during the pandemic

Project overview:

During the pandemic, Patients with Parkinson’s disease (PwP) were regarded among the vulnerable groups and their face to face (F2F) clinics were all cancelled. This makes their monitoring remotely ever so important. The project looked at all the patients who had telephone or Face to face consultations during the pandemic between March and August 2020. Those who had KinetiGraph (PKG) were examined to see how they correlated and informed the clinical decision making process when it came to alteration of the PD medications and clinician-patient discussions.

Project findings:

The findings showed that majority of the PwP in the complex stages were seen F2F and when PKG was done, the reports were of great assistance for the remote as well as F2F consultations with regards to enhancing patient-clinician discussion around disease control and medication changes. In total, 88 PwP had telephone consultation, 27 had F2F, 22 PKG were requested, 15 were done, and 13 were reported with reliable data. 8 had subsequent consultations with significant impact on their management, and 5 were still awaiting review (unfortunately 2 patients died while awaiting a review)

Project Conclusion:

Previous studies have shown a positive impact of using PKG in the management of PwP. The PKG can be applied to patients in their own home avoiding trips to clinics which can sometimes be long and arduous.

PKG has the potential to reduce the variability of approaches among clinicians, especially when it comes to symptom monitoring and treatment at complex stages of the disease. It is non-invasive and can potentially provide a reliable remote monitoring service enhancing discussions around treatment of those patients with complex symptoms.