Multiple Sclerosis in the Digital Health Age: Challenges and Opportunities - A Systematic Review

Abstract

In recent times, we have unequivocally witnessed a push towards digitising the healthcare system. Topics such as remote patient monitoring (RPM), digital health, and their use to monitor neurological disease progression have gained momentum and popularity. Notwithstanding the considerable advances that have been made in adopting such technologies and using them in the context of mental health or even a few neurodegenerative disease monitoring, they have not been widely used in the context of remote management and treatment of multiple sclerosis MS. In the same vein, given that (MS) is a very individualized disease to manage, there are numerous challenges yet opportunities associated with using digital health technologies for remote MS monitoring. This paper reviews the different research work and clinical attempts performed over the last decade (both home & hospital-based monitoring) en route to using digital health for MS monitoring and management. Similarly, this systematic review discusses the main challenges and barriers to translating that research from clinics into homes and highlights the opportunities in that context. Throughout this extensive review, we shine a light on various monitoring methods that hold the potential to be measured in a home environment, including electroencephalography (EEG) and evoked potentials (e.g., motor evoked potential (MEP), somatosensory evoked potentials (SSEP), and visual evoked potential (VEP)), electromyography (EMG), inertial measurement unit (IMU), and speech analysis. Combining such digital biomarkers could pave the way for developing a more personalised treatment for MS patients, thereby stopping its progression and avoiding silent MS disability. Adopting digital health for remote monitoring and management could also chart a route ahead for a new era of personalised medicine for MS patients and potentially other brain disorder patients.

A scoping review assessing the usability of digital health technologies targeting people with multiple sclerosis

“…A potential solution is increasing the frequency of clinical consultations, but this is constrained by time, cost, and geography, leading to inequity in healthcare access. To address some of these gaps in care provision, DHTs have become more integrated into the long-term care of people with MS [6][7][8] .…”