The application
Early diagnosis and timely access to specialist care is essential for patients with Parkinson's disease. Typically 70% of the economic burden of Parkinson's disease is related to long-term disability.
Early detection will yield better outcomes
If early deterioration can be avoided, long-term outcomes will be better and pre-symptomatic screening will become increasingly important when neuroprotective or regenerative therapies become widely available within the next 2-5 years.
Current diagnostic methods for Parkinson's disease are based on the clinician's subjective interpretation. Even for experienced clinicians, differentiating between a Parkinson's disease tremor and other tremors, such as an essential tremor, can be difficult and an unequivocal diagnosis of Parkinson's disease cannot always be made.
In such cases, neuroimaging techniques (DaTSCAN), which are expensive, require skilled operators and can be unpleasant for patients. Other methods for analysis of neurophysiological signals are impractical and no reliable comparison can be made from interpretations of observations and histories that were taken by different physicians or at different points in time, and the assessment is not objective.
The NeuroMotor Pen can increase the certainty of diagnosis by recognising differential diagnostic and disease progression biomarkers of Parkinson's disease. The results will non-invasively differentiate between Parkinson's disease and other neuromotor impairments such as essential tremor or signs of normal ageing which may mimic the symptoms of Parkinson's disease.
Regular use of the NeuroMotor Pen enables the clinician to monitor the patient's response to medication and disease progression.
“The NeuroMotor Pen has the potential to change the way we diagnose and monitor Parkinson’s disease on a global scale”
Dr Richard Walker
Consultant Physician
“Research and development in Parkinson's Disease is a key field for Cambridge Cognition and a hugely important area of research. The addition of the MANUS Parkinson's pen to our neuro-technology portfolio enables us to combine world-leading cognitive assessments with cutting-edge physical measures as we continue to advance the understanding, diagnosis and treatment of neurological disorders worldwide”
Dr. Steven Powell, Chief Executive Officer
Cambridge Cognition
“The pen may help identify patients where the symptoms are not typical or have not developed. In situations where there is some doubt, we often refer patients for a scan, but these cost £1,000 a time, so if the pen allows us to be more sure about the diagnosis it should mean we will need to refer fewer people for expensive scans”
Professor Richard Walker
Consultant Physician
Make a difference today
Our disruptive technology has the potential to be used across many applications such as screening, rehabilitation, drug development and medicine optimisation. We are keen to continue collaborating with interested researchers, clinicians and practitioners on our research in different areas of neuromotor disease, as well as investors for further development of our projects in the EU and US.