Parkinson’s Disease (PD) is affecting 7-10 million patients worldwide with strongly increasing prevalence in Western societies. Patients suffer from a variety of symptoms (e.g. tremor, gait and speech impairment, cognitive decline), which differ widely between individuals and can also vary over short periods of time. The cause of the disease is mostly unknown. Existing medications cannot stop disease progression, which highly varies from subject to subject, imposing major challenges for disease management as well as discovery of new medications.

DIGIPD evaluates modern digital technology measuring impairment of gait, voice and face movement with respect to more accurate diagnosis of symptoms (also outside clinics) and to prediction of disease progression. DIGIPD will disentangle the relationship of digital measures to established clinical questionnaires and to molecular biomarkers. The outcome of DIGIPD could be used by physicians to adapt treatment. Moreover, pharmaceutical companies can use a grouping into similar progressing patients to increase the chances of clinical trials bringing new and better drugs to the market.

Since DIGIPD heavily relies on Artificial Intelligence using personal data, the project will include an analysis of the legal situation, and it will involve patients via dedicated interviews.