Can the Current Mobile Technology Help for Medical Assistance? The Case of Freezing of Gait in Parkinson Disease

Parkinson’s disease (PD) affects around 1.5 % people aged 65 years. Among PD features, freezing of gait (FOG) is frequent, involving 70 % PD people after 10 years of disease onset, and highly disabling. Effective management of FOG is a challenge for the limited responsiveness to both drug treatment and functional neurosurgery. As “cueing on demand” is the only strategy of proven efficacy on FOG, it would be crucial to develop a portable assistive device able to release suitable cues at every time the FOG occurs during the daily living (DL) of the patient, without interfering with his/her daily activities. The current smart mobile telephony devices are in principle apt to satisfy all the above mentioned requisites in terms of technological feasibility of ambulation monitoring devices and in terms of acceptability, because of their increasing widespread diffusion. In this paper we will outline a smart-phone based architecture able to detect FOG, to produce the proper cues, and to provide information for continuous monitoring of the events. The paper will specifically consider the clinical necessity, technical feasibility, economic sustainability of the solution proposed and its potential of application.