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The latest news from across neurorehabilitation.
Parkinson's10 MayData is leading Parkinson’s care into a new era of personalised care and accelerating the race towards better treatments.
Devices like smartphones and smartwatches are capturing an ever-expanding array of health data with increasing accuracy. Thanks to a growing body of validation studies being published by Apple, its devices - especially the Apple Watch - are being utilised by health tech companies to support neurologists in treating their patients. Precision neurology company, Rune Labs, is one such company, using data to help patients, clinicians and researchers gain a deeper understanding of clinical outcomes. There are two sides to its technology, a platform that enables clinicians and patients to make better shared care decisions, and a clinical operation that is helping Parkinson’s diesease trials run more efficiently. Read on for our full interview with Rune's lead neuroscientist Ro’ee Gilron.
Care & services9 MayPeter Kinsey appointed as chair and CEO as ambitious business looks to the future
Parkinson's5 MayStudies suggest that as many as six in 10 people with Parkinson’s experience anxiety. Yet this and other non-motor challenges are largely overlooked by traditional interventions, with motor issues perhaps understandably prioritised among clinicians.
Having listened to urgent calls from within the Parkinson’s community for this to change, however, Christopher Lovegrove is on a mission to develop a new anxiety intervention; shaped, not by general population anxiety approaches, but by people living with the challenges of Parkinson’s every day. An occupational therapist by background, Christopher is an NIHR clinical doctoral research fellow at the University of Plymouth and Royal Devon University Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust. Here he talks to NR Times about his vision and the progress made so far in realising it.
Multiple sclerosis4 MayNR Times meets leading neuroscientist and MS expert Deborah Backus about the boundary-pushing research taking place at the Shepherd Centre in Atlanta.
Deborah Backus, vice president of research and innovation at the Shepherd Centre, Atlanta, has dedicated her career to researching MS and spinal cord injury. She initially began studying motor control in monkeys, but after a “lightbulb moment” during her PhD in neuroscience, she realised she needed to do more to “help clinicians understand the scientific evidence and how it can inform their practice”. As director of MS research at the world-leading hospital, Dr Backus is putting this passion into practice. The Shepherd Centre treats people across the entire continuum of care, covering spinal cord injury, acquired and traumatic brain injury, MS and chronic pain. Alongside its clinical work, the centre also contains corresponding research departments which carry out clinical trials that seek to directly improve clinical knowledge and patients’ quality of life. Dr Backus speaks to NR Times about the importance of translating research into clinical research and how her career has been shaped by a passion for making research actionable.
Interviews3 MayThe voice AI platform Canary Speech has achieved an accuracy of 96 per cent in recognising early signs of Huntington’s disease. NR Times spoke to CEO and co-founder Henry O’Connell about its potential role in neuro-rehab.
Speech is the most complex motor function in the human body and a key indicator of disease progression in patients with neurological conditions. As a neurological disease impacts the muscular system it leads to changes in patients’ voice and language. These changes occur gradually, beginning as subtle clues before developing into more noticeable symptoms as the disease progresses. Parkinson’s patients, for example, might slur words, mumble or struggle with articulation, while people with Alzheimer’s may begin to forget words as their condition deteriorates. The minute changes to speech that begin at the early stages of neurological diseases are difficult to spot. But, as a new era of AI and natural language processing technology (NLP) emerges, new platforms are showing promise for identifying dysarthria at a much earlier stage. One of the leaders in this field is Canary Speech, a voice biomarker platform that has already had success in screening for mood, stress, and energy levels using a single 20-second audio clip. Now, the company is turning its attention to neurological diseases as it seeks to use the same technology to detect the first signs of Parkinson’s, Huntington’s and Alzheimer’s Disease. Sign up to NR Times now to read our Canary Speech interview in full.
Research2 MayScientists are using machine learning to analyse data collected from the world’s largest study of people with Huntington's disease.
Huntington’s disease is a complex condition to treat. There is no cure and no treatments that can alter its course. Its progression is hard to predict, but a new retrospective study shows how machine learning could play an important role in predicting its trajectory. The study was conducted by scientists at the University of Iowa Health Care, US biotech company Genentech and Roche Products, the company behind the development of a potential new therapy for HD, Tominersen. Read NR Times' interview with those behind the study to find out how machine learning could change Huntington's management.
Parkinson's27 AprA new resource has been launched to help Parkinson’s patients reclaim the intimacy in their relationships and tackle the taboo surrounding sex and PD. NR Times talks to Dr Rebecca Gilbert, chief scientific officer of the American Parkinson Disease Association, to find out more.
Parkinson's disease affects more than ten million people worldwide and the prevalence of sexual dysfunction is disproportionately high in patients. Eighty three per cent of women and 79 per cent of men with Parkinson’s Disease report difficulty with sex and intimacy, often causing partners to grow apart physically and emotionally. Symptoms like tremor, rigidity and fatigue only reinforce this growing distance. In an effort to help Parkinson’s patients reconnect with their partners, the American Parkinson Disease Association (APDA) has partnered with Havas Health Plus to launch ParkinSex, a kit designed to help reintroduce intimacy and deepen connections for those affected by Parkinson’s. Read on to find out how the programme is challenging misconceptions about PD and a fulfilling sex life being incompatible.
Therapy27 AprPhysiotherapist Harpreet Kaur provides a useful summary of physical therapy interventions for hemiplegia.
Hemiplegia is a condition that involves paralysis or weakness of one side of the body due to damage to the brain or spinal cord. Rehabilitation is an integral part of treatment for hemiplegia. The focus is to help the affected individual regain as much movement and independence as possible through various therapeutic interventions. Rehabilitation for hemiplegia is typically tailored to the individual's specific needs and goals. It may involve a combination of different therapies to achieve the best possible outcome. The following are the common approaches used in hemiplegia rehabilitation:
News27 AprBrain injury and ADHD share a complex relationship, with research evidence highlighting the disorder among neurobehavioural complications of TBI and amid widespread recognition that more studies are needed to shed light on this complex picture. NR Times reports on a pioneering approach to ADHD which aims to revolutionise management of the condition.
Children with traumatic brain injury have a heightened risk of developing ADHD, and recent research suggests that it may not develop until years later. A separate study (Gerring et al, 1998) presents ADHD secondary to TBI as occurring in 20 to 50 per cent of individuals post-injury. Meanwhile, ADHD diagnoses are on the up. In the US, the National Health Interview Survey estimated the prevalence in children aged four to 17 years to be around 10 per cent in 2016, up from six per cent in the 1990s. And this trend seems to have continued, with more recent figures up to 2019 from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showing that ADHD has recently been diagnosed in 13 per cent of children aged 12 to 17 years in US. Against the backdrop of this trend, ADHD Online has emerged as the only organisation in the US to offer ADHD assessment online that is compliant with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA); which protects sensitive patient health information from being disclosed without the patient’s consent or knowledge. The platform provides certified results from licensed psychologists. NR Times spoke to CEO Zach Booker and senior clinical staff at the company about its novel approach to ADHD and their views on the outlook for ADHD management.
Interviews20 AprRehab physician and former health system leader Dr Gerda Maissel now dedicates her time to the forgotten complex care patients lost in the mechanisms of American health. Here she tells NR Times about her My MD Advisor mission.
Dr Gerda Maissel is something of a guiding light for neuro-rehab patients lost in the American healthcare system. The former rehabilitation physician who later spent 12 years in health system leadership, dedicates her time to helping people with complicated healthcare problems navigate their way back to an appropriate pathway through her enterprise, My MD Advisor. “People get lost in the system a lot here,” she says from her home in New York State. “Fundamentally, the system which helped people with severe injuries in the past, now provides very short lengths of stay in inpatient, acute rehab settings; and so, people get dumped into sub-acute rehab, where there's not even remotely the level of expertise needed." Read on for more on the challenges facing rehab patients on the wrong pathway and Dr Maissel's views on how to overcome them.
