The Use of Technology-Enabled Care (TEC) in Patients with Parkinson's Disease: An Italian Survey

Objective. The present survey aims to explore the use and need of connected health or technology-enabled care (TEC) in patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) in Italy. Background. TEC includes telecare, telehealth, telemedicine, Mobile Health and technological tools, and it is increasingly believed to contribute to achieve the challenges of health, social care, and wellness, and to enable more effective integration of care. Currently, few TEC tools specifically developed for PD symptoms are available and most of these are still prototype. However, TEC is being recognized as a valuable option to improve quality of life in patients with PD [1, 2]. Methods. 142 PD patients (90 males; aged 31-90 years; education 5-17 years) answered to a specifically developed multiple-choices questionnaire composed by 36 items concerning medical history and daily use of TEC (medical devices, health applications, and hardware including mobile diagnostics, remote monitoring devices, wearables and tools). Results. Overall PD patients are very interested in technological tools: 81.7% of patients consider technologies useful for managing PD, 58% would use technologies to communicate with physicians, 53% for daily reminder of drug schedule, 56% to practice physical training and 60% for cognitive exercises. In contrast, the real use of technologies specifically targeting the symptoms and dysfunctions of the disease by PD patients is remarkably rare: for instance, 14.8% of patients used videogames, 5.6% wearable sensors, 1.4% virtual reality, 7.7% cognitive applications, 1.4% self-stabilizing pen, 0% self-stabilizing spoon). Conclusion. Though Italian PD patients are strongly interested in technologies specifically developed for PD, a real knowledge of their potential utility and their real use are still uncommon. The education of PD patients to the use of technological tools can therefore further improve the efficacy of conventional treatments and reduce the cost for the national health systems related to PD.