Parkinson’s Disease Management through ICT: The REMPARK Approach
About this ebook
The current available technology (electronics, communication, computing, etc.), correctly combined with wearables, can be of great use for obtaining and processing useful information for both clinicians and patients allowing them to become actively involved in their condition.
Parkinson's Disease Management through ICT: The REMPARK Approach presents the work done, main results and conclusions of the REMPARK project (2011 - 2015) funded by the European Union under contract FP7-ICT-2011-7-287677. REMPARK system was proposed and developed as a real Personal Health Device for the Remote and Autonomous Management of Parkinson's Disease, composed of different levels of interaction with the patient, clinician and carers, and integrating a set of interconnected sub-systems: sensor, auditory cueing, Smartphone and server. The sensor subsystem, using embedded algorithmics, is able to detect the motor symptoms associated with PD in real time. This information, sent through the Smartphone to the REMPARK server, is used for an efficient management of the disease.
Implementation of REMPARK will increase the independence and Quality of Life of patients; and improve their disease management, treatment and rehabilitation.
About the author
Joan Cabestany holds a Telecommunications Engineer degree (1976) from the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC) in Barcelona, Spain. He got his PhD (1982) from the same University, where he is working as a Full-time Professor in the Department of Electronic Engineering. He has been involved in research and innovation activities as a part of his career. He is the responsible member of the AHA ("Advanced Hardware Architectures") research group at UPC, with expertise on reconfigurable hardware, electronic system design, advanced hardware architectures, microelectronics, and VLSI design. One of the main topics of interest has been the practical application of the Artificial Intelligence to the functional improvement of
electronic systems.
He is a member of the CETpD Research Center staff structure at UPC since 2005. The activities of CETpD are focused on technological developments applied to the improvement and help people with chronic diseases, like Parkinson's Disease and different conditions related with aging. On behalf of UPC, Prof. Cabestany has been responsible for several EU funded
projects. Among them, the REMPARK project on PD management and the FATE project for the accurate detection of falls in aging people are the two projects, where Prof. Cabestany has been acting as coordinator. He is the co-author for more than 100 research papers and communications to Conferences. Prof. Cabestany is a co-founder of the Sense4Care Company
(www.sense4care.com), a Spin-off of the UPC commercializing relevant innovative research results.
Angels Bayés Rusiñol MD is a Doctor in Medicine and Neurology specialist. Her career and research activity has been focused on the study and treatment of Movement Disorders like Parkinson's Disease (PD) and Tourette syndrome, and on dementias, like Alzheimer's disease.
She has been the director of the Unit for Movement Disorders and Parkinson's of TEKNON Medical Center in Barcelona (Spain) during the last 20 years.
Her main research areas are related to the implementation of complete treatment, complementary therapies, psycho-education, and to try to improve the quality of life of patients suffering from movement disorders. During the last 5 years, she has been cooperating with an engineering team at Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, in Barcelona, for the development and implementation of technological solutions for the support and management of PD.
She has participated in 39 research projects, with special mention of the EU funded EDUPARK and REMPARK ones. She has authored more than 60 publications, including 6 books, many conferences, communications, and training courses.
