A1559
Title: Digital biomarkers of Parkinson's disease using free-living accelerometry data
Authors: Danni Tu - Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (United States) [presenting]
Abstract: Current clinical standards for tracking the progression of Parkinson's disease (PD) rely on questionnaire-based assessments that require in-clinic visits to be administered. These instruments' subjective nature and operational limitations are a major obstacle in efficient, safe, decentralized, and remote clinical trials, warranting the need for novel digital endpoints. Wearable devices are a promising approach to monitor patients continuously and objectively, particularly in people living with neurological diseases that affect motor function. The focus is on the leveraged wrist-worn accelerometry data from the National Health and Nutritional Survey (NHANES) to develop clinically-informed measures that capture and characterize physical manifestations of PD, including altered motor function (e.g., tremor), increased fatigue, and sleep disturbances. As the NHANES cohort is not specifically characterized for PD, we also proposed a novel method to identify likely PD patients and create scores approximating the disease severity. Accelerometry-based biomarkers were shown to be specific to disease status and sensitive to disease severity scores. The proposed biomarker development framework and findings in the context of PD have the potential to enhance understanding of disease progression in PD and its impact on everyday functioning, leading to novel, more sensitive, and less burdensome digital endpoints.
