mHealth Platform for the Delivery of Rehabilitation and Physical Exercise at Home for Parkinson’s Disease Patients

Abstract

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a neurodegenerative and progressive disorder of the central nervous system that affects mainly the motor system. As a consequence of the disease, PD patients suffer a progressive reduction of their independence and Quality of Life (QoL). Literature research shows that the use of auditory, visual and haptic cueing could significantly benefit the motor performance of PD patients. Likewise, music therapy (MT) has shown notable benefits for PD either in the motor and non-motor dimensions. This work is aimed at designing a mHealth system to deliver a home based rehabilitation programme for PD patients based on external cueing and MT called HOOP, integrated by a set of inertial sensors, an Android application, and a web tool for professionals. This designing process has been performed according to expert’s consultation in order to develop a tool that can cover both patients and professional necessities.