Intel Jumps Into Parkinson's Research
By Christine Kern, contributing writer
Big data analytics and wearable data offer potential for Parkinson's Research.
Intel has found a way to demonstrate the value of big data analytics in the big healthcare industry, announcing it is partnering with The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research to use wearable devices and data analytics to help monitor patient treatment.
The collaboration includes a multiphase research study using a new big data analytics platform that detects patterns in participant data collected from wearable technologies used to monitor symptoms. This effort is an important step in enabling researchers and physicians to measure progression of the disease and to speed progress toward breakthroughs in drug development.
"Data science and wearable computing hold the potential to transform our ability to capture and objectively measure patients' actual experience of disease, with unprecedented implications for Parkinson's drug development, diagnosis and treatment," explained Todd Sherer, PhD, CEO of The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research (MJFF).
The Intel-built big data analytics platform combines hardware and software technologies to provide researchers with a way to more accurately measure progression of disease symptoms.
"The variability in Parkinson's symptoms creates unique challenges in monitoring progression of the disease," said Diane Bryant, SVP and GM of Intel's Data Center Group. "Emerging technologies can not only create a new paradigm for measurement of Parkinson's, but as more data is made available to the medical community, it may also point to currently unidentified features of the disease that could lead to new areas of research."
A study that began this year involved 16 Parkinson’s patients and nine control volunteers who wore the wearables, according to a statement. Now data scientists at Intel are exploring the data. Mount Sinai Hospital in New York and the Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center in Israel are participating in the efforts, Bryant said.
Wearables can unobtrusively gather and transmit objective, experiential data in real time, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, allowing researchers to go from looking at a very small number of data points and burdensome pencil-and-paper patient diaries collected sporadically to analyzing hundreds of readings per second from thousands of patients and attaining a critical mass of data to detect patterns and make new discoveries.
The Michael J. Fox Foundation will supply funding to equip patients of the study around the country with wearables. An added benefit will be the ability to widen the research pool beyond those who live near research facilities. Though Intel has thus far provided patients with its own wearables, the study is allegedly device-agnostic and will use a wide range of devices to measure patient activity.
"We're exploring how to pull data out of devices in real-time," Ron Kasabian, general manager of Intel's Big Data Solutions group, told Reuters. "We can mine data to improve research, and better understand the behaviors and progression of the disease."
Intel's Big Data Center Group is the division responsible for helping integrate the company's technology with the foundation's medical research tools. The open-source analytics platform will gather real-time anonymized patient data from the wearables, where it will be aggregated and analyzed.
In the next phase of the study slated for this fall, Intel will use both wearables and a dedicated mobile app to monitor patient data and integrate with self-reported information like medication intake and mood.