AUTHOR=Dias Sofia Balula , Grammatikopoulou Athina , Diniz José Alves , Dimitropoulos Kosmas , Grammalidis Nikos , Zilidou Vicky , Savvidis Theodore , Konstantinidis Evdokimos , Bamidis Panagiotis D. , Jaeger Hagen , Stadtschnitzer Michael , Silva Hugo , Telo Gonçalo , Ioakeimidis Ioannis , Ntakakis George , Karayiannis Fotis , Huchet Estelle , Hoermann Vera , Filis Konstantinos , Theodoropoulou Elina , Lyberopoulos George , Kyritsis Konstantinos , Papadopoulos Alexandros , Delopoulos Anastasios , Trivedi Dhaval , Chaudhuri K. Ray , Klingelhoefer Lisa , Reichmann Heinz , Bostantzopoulou Sevasti , Katsarou Zoe , Iakovakis Dimitrios , Hadjidimitriou Stelios , Charisis Vasileios , Apostolidis George , Hadjileontiadis Leontios J. TITLE=Innovative Parkinson's Disease Patients' Motor Skills Assessment: The i-PROGNOSIS Paradigm JOURNAL=Frontiers in Computer Science VOLUME=2 YEAR=2020 URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/computer-science/articles/10.3389/fcomp.2020.00020 DOI=10.3389/fcomp.2020.00020 ISSN=2624-9898 ABSTRACT=

Being the second most common neurodegenerative disease, Parkinson's disease (PD) can be symptomatically treated, although, unfortunately, it cannot be cured yet. Moreover, diagnosing and assessing PD patients is a complex process, requiring continuous monitoring. In this vein, the design, development, and validation of innovative assessment tools may be helpful in the management of patients with PD, in particular. Based on intelligent ICT interventions, the i-PROGNOSIS project intends to mitigate PD's specific symptoms, such as neurological movement disorders of gait, balance, coordination, and posture, already characterized in the early phase of the disease. From this perspective, an innovative iPrognosis motor assessment tool is presented here, taking into consideration the Unified Parkinson Disease Rating Scale (UPDRS) Part III motor skills testing items, for evaluating the motor skills status. The efficiency of the proposed Assessment Tests to reflect the motor skills status, similarly to the UPDRS Part III items, was validated via 27 participants (18 males; mean age = 62 years, SD = 10.36 years; range, 43–79 years) with early (n = 10) and moderate (n = 17) PD who performed the Assessment Tests. Features from the latter were then correlated with the corresponding clinically assessed UPDRS Part III items, and statistically significant negative correlations (range, −0.364 to −0.802) were identified between the median values of the Assessment Tests and the UPDRS Part III items. In this vein, the iPrognosis Assessment Tests were integrated within the personalized interventions of the i-PROGNOSIS project, providing alternative means of assessing their effect on the PD patient's motor skills enhancement. The promising results presented here elaborate on the concept of using ICT-based assessment means to achieve comparable outcomes with the clinical standards in motor skills assessment.