How COVID accelerated research into monitoring Parkinson’s symptoms
In this article, the University of Oxford’s Professor Chrystalina Antoniades of the Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences explains how the COVID pandemic accelerated an innovation in one research project into Parkinson's Disease.
The OxQUIP (Oxford QUantification In Parkinsonism) study is recruiting patients with Parkinson's Disease and Progressive Supranuclear Palsy. Currently available treatments for these diseases are symptomatic only, and do not have any preventive or disease-slowing effect. As new drugs are developed, we need to be able to evaluate them quickly, so that precious time and resources can be devoted to those showing most promise.
The study follows participants intensively over a two year period, with the aim of identifying measures that can detect disease progression over much shorter time periods than is possible at present. Participants are asked to perform simple tasks while we measure movements of the eyes, hands and body. We also do some tasks on a tablet computer that measure cognitive performance.
