Sheffield Hallam involved in new care scheme for Parkinson's

The project will focus on co-designing a new service to help Parkinson's patients, carers and healthcare staff to monitor a person's condition remotely with the help of a device worn on the wrist.

It officially launched this week, following the news that £75,000 funding from the Health Foundation and £15,500 funding from a Parkinson's UK Excellence Network Service Improvement Grant had been donated to the project.

The project service, led by the University of Plymouth and University Hospitals Plymouth NHS Trust, will initially be delivered to 150 patients in and around Plymouth as a pilot scheme.

If successful, it could then be rolled out across the UK.

One of the main elements of the project is the introduction of a wrist-worn device known as a personal kinetigraph.

This will allow the wearer and a specialist team to monitor their condition at home.

There will also be an education package which aims to provide people with the knowledge they need to understand and manage Parkinson's symptoms.

Dr Joe Langley, a senior research fellow in healthcare innovation in the Sheffield Hallam University Lab4Living, is working alongside colleagues Rebecca Partridge and Ursula Ankeny, in designing the training, support and learning resources that participants will need to make use of the technology.

Dr Langley said: "Implementing anything of this scale and complexity into an already complex system is incredibly challenging.

“We're very lucky to have been working with the team in Plymouth in recent years on various projects.

“We hope that the efforts of this project will lead to improved working conditions for extremely pressured staff.

“We also hope that it will improve the quality of life for those people living with Parkinson's."

The UK prevalence of Parkinson's disease is set to increase by a fifth by 2025.