FDA Clears Parkinson's Tracker App for Apple Watch
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved an Apple Watch app to collect Parkinson's patient symptom data.
Developed by San Francisco-based startup Rune Labs, the StrivePD platform draws directly from Apple's Movement Disorder API(Opens in a new window), which measures and records tremors and involuntary motions common in people with Parkinson's disease.
The brain disorder, most famously diagnosed in actor Michael J. Fox, causes unintended or uncontrollable movements, often impeding someone's ability to walk or talk. Since its true cause is unknown, clinical diagnosis and treatment are typically based on common warning signs like tremors, dyskinesia, slowness of movement, rigidity, and poor balance.
"StrivePD helps people to track their symptoms and improvements, accelerating the time to an optimal medication schedule," app creator Aura Oslapas said in a statement(Opens in a new window). She tapped into her own experience with Parkinson's to create the program, which was acquired by Rune Labs in 2019.
Traditionally, clinicians and researchers make patient-care decisions based on limited information. Rune Labs wants to "radically transform what it means to be a patient with Parkinson's" by gaining more visibility into data that could accelerate drug development and treatment.
"StrivePD on Apple Watch is the long-awaited union of quantitative and qualitative data that encourages better care and communication between patients and clinicians, while also empowering people with Parkinson's who are striving to live better every day," Oslapas said..
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