“mPower”-ing Patients with Parkinson’s Disease

Ray Dorsey, M.D., David M. Levy professor of Neurology, director of the Center for Human Experimental Therapeutics, and associate director for Clinical Trial Methods and Technologies at the CTSI and URMC, is featured below in a video discussing his research involving a smartphone application that helps assess symptoms of Parkinson’s disease patients from the comfort of their own homes.

Dorsey helped develop the mPower smartphone app, which is a clinical research tool that is helping researchers understand why certain Parkinson’s disease patients experience certain symptoms and how those symptoms change over time. As Dorsey says, the app is not a “one way street of information.” It allows patients to track their own symptoms day to day and provides them with information to help them better manage their symptoms.

One of the most important aspects of this application and clinical research is that breaks down a barrier to research participation and health care access. People can participate in the study and conduct assessments entirely on their phone – without ever having to visit a clinic.

Dorsey’s goal: “Anyone, anywhere in the U.S. can participate in research – regardless of who they are and where they live.”

The University of Rochester Medical Center is home to approximately 3,000 individuals who conduct research on everything from cancer and heart disease to Parkinson’s, pandemic influenza, and autism. Spread across many centers, institutes, and labs, our scientists have developed therapies that have improved human health locally, in the region, and across the globe. To learn more, visit http://www.urmc.rochester.edu/research.

Michael Hazard | 6/1/2016