- Big data analytics and data from
wearable computing offer potential to improve monitoring and
treatment of Parkinson’s disease
- The Intel-built big data analytics
platform combines hardware and software technologies to provide
researchers with a way to more accurately measure progression of
disease symptoms
The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research (MJFF)
and Intel Corporation announced today a collaboration aimed at
improving research and treatment for Parkinson’s disease — a
neurodegenerative brain disease second only to Alzheimer’s in
worldwide prevalence. The collaboration includes a multiphase
research study using a new big data analytics platform that detects
patterns in participant data collected from wearable technologies
used to monitor symptoms. This effort is an important step in
enabling researchers and physicians to measure progression of the
disease and to speed progress toward breakthroughs in drug
development.
Anonymous patient data is aggregated and
analyzed for new insight into Parkinson’s disease via a new
partnership between Intel and the Michael J. Fox Foundation.
(Photo: Business Wire)
“Nearly 200 years after Parkinson’s disease was first described
by Dr. James Parkinson in 1817, we are still subjectively measuring
Parkinson’s disease largely the same way doctors did then,” said
Todd Sherer, PhD, CEO of The Michael J. Fox Foundation. “Data
science and wearable computing hold the potential to transform our
ability to capture and objectively measure patients’ actual
experience of disease, with unprecedented implications for
Parkinson’s drug development, diagnosis and treatment.”
“The variability in Parkinson’s symptoms creates unique
challenges in monitoring progression of the disease,” said Diane
Bryant, senior vice president and general manager of Intel’s Data
Center Group. “Emerging technologies can not only create a new
paradigm for measurement of Parkinson’s, but as more data is made
available to the medical community, it may also point to currently
unidentified features of the disease that could lead to new areas
of research.”
Tracking an Invisible Enemy
For nearly two decades, researchers have been refining advanced
genomics and proteomics techniques to create increasingly
sophisticated cellular profiles of Parkinson’s disease pathology.
Advances in data collection and analysis now provide the
opportunity to expand the value of this wealth of molecular data by
correlating it with objective clinical characterization of the
disease for use in drug development.
The potential to collect and analyze data from thousands of
individuals on measurable features of Parkinson’s, such as slowness
of movement, tremor and sleep quality, could enable researchers to
assemble a better picture of the clinical progression of
Parkinson’s and track its relationship to molecular changes.
Wearables can unobtrusively gather and transmit objective,
experiential data in real time, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
With this approach, researchers could go from looking at a very
small number of data points and burdensome pencil-and-paper patient
diaries collected sporadically to analyzing hundreds of readings
per second from thousands of patients and attaining a critical mass
of data to detect patterns and make new discoveries.
MJFF and Intel initiated a study earlier this year to evaluate
the usability and accuracy of wearable devices for tracking agreed
physiological features from participants and using a big data
analytics platform to collect and analyze the data. The
participants (16 Parkinson’s patients and nine control volunteers)
wore the devices during two clinic visits and at home continuously
over four days.
Bret Parker, 46, of New York, is living with Parkinson’s and
participated in the study. “I know that many doctors tell their
patients to keep a log to track their Parkinson’s,” said Parker. “I
am not a compliant patient on that front. I pay attention to my
Parkinson’s, but it’s not everything I am all the time. The
wearables did that monitoring for me in a way I didn’t even notice,
and the study allowed me to take an active role in the process for
developing a cure.”
Intel data scientists are now correlating the data collected to
clinical observations and patient diaries to gauge the devices’
accuracy, and are developing algorithms to measure symptoms and
disease progression.
Later this year, Intel and MJFF plan to launch a new mobile
application that enables patients to report their medication intake
as well as how they are feeling. The effort is part of the next
phase of the study to enable medical researchers to study the
effects of medication on motor symptoms via changes detected in
sensor data from wearable devices.
Collecting, Storing and Analyzing the Data
To analyze the volume of data, more than 300 observations per
second from each patient, Intel developed a big data analytics
platform that integrates a number of software components including
Cloudera® CDH* — an open-source software platform that collects,
stores, and manages data. The data platform is deployed on a cloud
infrastructure optimized on Intel® architecture, allowing
scientists to focus on research rather than the underlying
computing technologies. The platform supports an analytics
application developed by Intel to process and detect changes in the
data in real time. By detecting anomalies and changes in sensor and
other data, the platform can provide researchers with a way to
measure the progression of the disease objectively.
In the near future, the platform could store other types of data
such as patient, genome and clinical trial data. In addition, the
platform could enable other advanced techniques such as machine
learning and graph analytics to deliver more accurate predictive
models that researchers could use to detect change in disease
symptoms. These advances could provide unprecedented insights into
the nature of Parkinson’s disease, helping scientists measure the
efficacy of new drugs and assisting physicians with prognostic
decisions.
Shared Commitment to Open-Access Data
MJFF and Intel share a commitment to increasing the rate of
progress made possible by open access to data. The organizations
aim to share data with the greater Parkinson’s community of
physicians and researchers as well as invite them to submit their
own de-identified patient and subject data for analysis. Teams may
also choose to contribute de-identified patient data for inclusion
in broader, population-scale studies.
The Foundation has previously made de-identified data and
bio-samples from its sponsored studies available to qualified
researchers, including from individuals with a
Parkinson’s-implicated mutation in their LRRK2 gene. MJFF has also
opened access to resources from its landmark biomarker study the
Parkinson’s Progression Markers Initiative (PPMI) since it launched
in 2010. Parkinson’s scientists around the world have downloaded
PPMI data more than 235,000 times to date.
About The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s
Research
As the world’s largest nonprofit funder of Parkinson’s research,
The Michael J. Fox Foundation is dedicated to accelerating a cure
for Parkinson’s disease and improved therapies for those living
with the condition today. The Foundation pursues its goals through
an aggressively funded, highly targeted research program coupled
with active global engagement of scientists, Parkinson’s patients,
business leaders, clinical trial participants, donors and
volunteers. In addition to funding more than $450 million in
research to date, the Foundation has fundamentally altered the
trajectory of progress toward a cure. Operating at the hub of
worldwide Parkinson’s research, the Foundation forges
groundbreaking collaborations with industry leaders, academic
scientists and government research funders; increases the flow of
participants into Parkinson’s disease clinical trials with its
online tool, Fox Trial Finder; promotes Parkinson’s awareness
through high-profile advocacy, events and outreach; and coordinates
the grassroots involvement of thousands of Team Fox members around
the world.
For more information, visit us on the Web, Facebook, Twitter,
LinkedIn and Pinterest.
About Intel
Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) is a world leader in computing innovation.
The company designs and builds the essential technologies that
serve as the foundation for the world’s computing devices. As
a leader in corporate responsibility and sustainability, Intel also
manufactures the world’s first commercially available
“conflict-free” microprocessors. Additional information about Intel
is available at newsroom.intel.com and blogs.intel.com, and about
Intel’s conflict-free efforts at conflictfree.intel.com.
Intel and the Intel logo are trademarks of Intel Corporation in
the United States and other countries.
*Other names and brands may be claimed as the property of
others.
Photos/Multimedia Gallery Available:
http://www.businesswire.com/multimedia/home/20140813005143/en/
for Intel CorporationJulie Rosenfeld,
212-593-6356rosenfeldj@ruderfinn.comorKrystal Temple,
480-242-6943krystal.temple@intel.com
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