Being seen: Co-interpreting Parkinson's patient's movement ability in deep brain stimulation programming

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to address the use of movement assessment sensors for clinical diagnosis and treatment. Eleven patients with Parkinson's disease who had undergone deep brain stimulation (DBS) surgery were observed during follow-up appointments for adjustments to the stimulation settings. We examine the ways in which the patients and clinicians assess movement ability together in the clinic and how these assessments relate to the treatment of functional disability through DBS. We have found that effective assessment of movement and treatment efficacy is a collaborative and interpretive process (co-interpretation) that relies on input from patients, clinicians, and caregivers. From these findings we describe the design directions for movement sensors to support co-interpretation of movement in a clinical context as opposed to simply movement definition.