BACKGROUND
Mobile health devices (MHDs), such as wearables and smartphones, have the potential to improve the monitoring of people with Parkinson’s disease (PD) and inform timely and individualized disease management decisions.
OBJECTIVE
This paper provides an overview of the technologies behind mobile health devices MHDs and investigate their potential for sustainable management of PD.
METHODS
A literature search using PubMed, Scopus, and IEEE Xplore was performed between October 30, 2023, and November 16, 2023, for studies investigating the use of MHDs to measure PD cardinal motor features.
RESULTS
A total of 138 relevant papers drawn from 2364 papers were analyzed. MHDs have been mainly used to assess gait and bradykinesia (slowness of movements). Most studies focused on the patient outcomes, while overlooking aspects such as the integration of MHDs in healthcare workflows and sustainable viability factors (user adoption and cost-effectiveness).
CONCLUSIONS
When designing MHD-based interventions it is essential to balance the focus on immediate health benefits for PD patients with equal consideration for technology integration, cost-effectiveness, and user adoption to ensure comprehensive, impactful, and sustainable contributions of such interventions.