Developing a novel non-invasive aid for early diagnosis of Parkinson's Disease

The project will develop and make market-ready an innovative user-friendly, low cost tool, the Manus system, to aid in the differential diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease (PD), based around a sensor-pen that uses drawing and handwriting motion analyses to provide objective information to clinicians. The device may be used by non-specialists with minimal training to enable decentralized healthcare and screening to improve the capacity of effective and early diagnosis and intervention by neurology clinics. Improvements will be made to the existing prototype hardware and mathematical algorithms with diagnostic capability by Manus. This will take place in conjunction with Prof. Walker and colleagues at North Tyneside General Hospital, who will perform a clinical assessment of the utility of the platform and comparison with standards (DaTSCAN and diagnosing by neurologist). Prior to commencing the trial, ethical approval and MHRA approval for use in trial will be obtained.