Growing up as a kid in the early 80s, one of my favourite actors was Michael J. Fox. It also didn’t hurt that he was a fellow Canadian who went on to become one of the bigger television stars of the era. It was quite a shock to hear that he had been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease a little over 20 years ago. Not wanting to sit back, he has become an incredible advocate for the cause.
It seems our friends at Intel want to give him some help in his fight to improve the lives of those who have been stricken by the disease, and they are using IoT solutions to do it. One of the issues when it comes to beating any enemy is information….how do you know exactly how to battle an opponent if you are not even sure what you are up against? It has often been difficult for Parkinson’s sufferers to describe how the disease is affecting them with a great amount of accuracy, so that has left researchers and caregivers to have to guess on ways to fight the disease.
Enter Intel. Intel’s partnership with the Michael J. Fox Foundation will provide wearable devices that will accurately detect movement (including frequency, duration and amount of movement), as well as combining it with other sensors on the body. When you combine this sensory information with some powerful Big Data Analytics software, researchers/caregivers will now have incredible levels of information to better diagnose and attack the disease. It will allow them to increase / decrease treatment as required and will enable better diagnosis of the disease itself.
For its part, the MJF Foundation is ensuring that there is funding to supply a large number of patients with the required hardware in order to further the study. The goal is to advance the study to allow it to factor in how movements are affected by certain doses of medication, rest or food intake.
Bottom line
The widespread adoption of wearable technology for health and fitness is a great thing as it allows many of us to find ways to improve our health, regardless of our age or current physical condition. I think it is a huge leap forward that we are able to use this same technology to help the fight against some of the most vicious diseases that are affecting our population today.
Hats off to Intel and the Michael J. Fox foundation. I hope this is the start of how we can use this great technology to battle many other ailments.
