uMotif and Oxford University Innovation collaborate on world’s largest health tracking study to improve the lives of those with Parkinson’s

One person in every 500 has Parkinson’s disease, with more than 127,000 people in the UK and around 10 million people globally diagnosed with the condition. A unique global health project – 100 for Parkinson’s – has engaged thousands of people across the world to track their health, using smartphone technology, to provide valuable new insights on the impact of Parkinson’s on their daily lives.

With over 4,000 participants and millions of data points captured, the study is now the world’s largest of its type in Parkinson’s, capturing more high quality health data from more patients over a longer period of time.

uMotif (leading technology experts in measuring patients’ symptoms, outcomes & experience) have been collaborating with the Clinical Outcomes team at Oxford University Innovation on a global study in the area of Parkinson’s Disease (PD). Backed by The Cure Parkinson’s Trust, Parkinson’s UK and 11 other supporting organisations, uMotif developed their smartphone app to track participant’s health. Launched earlier this year the 100 for Parkinson’s project is a public-facing citizen science observational study, with participants tracking their health for 100 days and donating their data for research. Participants include People with Parkinson’s, carers and volunteers, who have together captured millions of data points for further research. The purpose of capturing this health data is to share the resulting anonymised ground-breaking dataset with research projects working on treatments for PD. The data will be available from early 2017.

As part of the study, uMotif selected the gold standard quality of life measure for PD, the Parkinson’s Disease Questionnaire (PDQ) developed at Oxford University and now supported by the Clinical Outcomes team at Oxford University Innovation. The PDQ-8 is a short, highly validated, eight question, patient self-complete measure used to assess various aspects of quality of life for people with Parkinson’s. As part of their commitment to supporting research for improving the health of society, the Clinical Outcomes team made the PDQ-8 and their support available free of charge to uMotif and the study.

By developing an app for smartphones and tablet devices, uMotif’s capture of participant data was made far more accessible as participants use their own familiar devices for all responses over the 100 days – a technology approach known as ‘Bring-Your-Own-Device’ (BYOD). 100 for Parkinson’s is the world’s largest ever BYOD study using PDQ-8.

In addition to the PDQ-8 measure, the project captures regular data on participants’ symptoms, experience, wearable devices and medications.

Following the successes of working together on the 100 for Parkinson’s study, and a previous study (a NHS-based Randomised Controlled Trial, the SMART-PD trial), uMotif and Oxford University Innovation are now launching a new health outcomes data capture collaboration for clinical trials. This new collaboration is focussing on new technology-based solutions for gold-standard outcomes measurement in three key sectors :- for industry (pharmaceutical and other medical product companies); academic clinical research and health service provision. The new collaboration creates a unique new technology-based solution, combining uMotif’s innovative health measurement technology alongside Oxford’s highly regarded, robust and validated health measures. The new data capture solution allows industry and academic researchers to capture more data and new data types – outcomes, experience, symptoms, wearables, medications – for clinical trials at lower cost, with faster setup and deployment timescale. Capturing more data more rapidly helps researchers gain new insight, improving the efficiency and effectiveness of trials.

Bruce Hellman, Chief Executive of uMotif said “We’re so used to communicating, shopping, even banking, on our mobile phones and yet we’re only just starting to uncover their potential for our health. The 100 For Parkinson’s study is showing the huge potential to capture high quality health data from patients in real-time, on their own devices. We’re delighted to be working with Oxford University Innovation to ensure the data captured is of gold-standard quality for researchers, clinicians, patients and partners. We look forward to working further with Oxford on new projects in clinical research, Real World Evidence and health services measurement.”

David Churchman, business lead for the Clinical Outcomes team said “we are very proud to play our part in this very worthwhile and innovative global study. We really look forward to hearing about case studies where the arising data has proven valuable to those researching the treatment of PD. We are now working with uMotif to explore further uses of uMotif’s health tracking platform for large (and small) scale assessments in other health conditions including; other neurodegenerative conditions (for example ALS); women’s health (endometriosis); coeliac disease; mental health; dementia and heart failure to name just a few.”

For more information

Commercial enquires:

Bruce Hellman, CEO uMotif,

bruce@uMotif.com, T: +44 (0)7974 242650

Media enquires:

Simon Gray, Head of Marketing, Oxford University Innovation,

simon.gray@innovation.ox.ac.uk, T: +44 (0)1865 614428

About uMotif

uMotif is a world-leading technology company from London, with a patient-centric platform to measure patient’s health, symptoms, outcomes and experience data. The uMotif platform is clinically proven through NHS trials and globally accredited to capture rich health data across a range of conditions.

uMotif have captured over 12 million data points from over 17,000 patients and work with industry-leading partners in clinical research and health services delivery across the world.

For more information on uMotif and commercial sales, please contact Bruce Hellman, CEO on bruce@uMotif.com

About Clinical Outcomes at Oxford University Innovation

Clinical Outcomes is an activity within Oxford University Innovation Limited, the Technology Transfer Company for the University of Oxford. The Clinical Outcomes team is dedicated to the provision and support in the use of high quality Clinical Outcome Assessment (COA) measures (mainly Patient Reported Outcome (PRO) Measures, or sometimes referred to as PROMs. We support our users across the healthcare sector including the pharmaceutical industry, healthcare providers, academia and medical device manufacturers.

Clinical Outcomes provides copyright licenses and PRO support services including new instrument development and validation, translation and linguistic validation, and e-platform migration, to our customers. For further information, please contact Clinical Outcomes at healthoutcomes@innovation.ox.ac.uk.

About Oxford University Innovation

Oxford University Innovation supports innovation activities across all University Divisions, managing technology transfer and consulting activities, and providing an innovation management service to clients around the world.

We provide access to technology from Oxford researchers through intellectual property licensing, spinout company formation and material sales, and to academic expertise through our Consulting Services team. The New Venture Support & Funding team supports investors or donors with an interest in early-stage ventures, and manages the Oxford Angels Network.

Our Startup Incubator supports members and ex-members of the University who wish to start or grow entrepreneur-driven ventures that are not University spinouts.

Oxford University Innovation is the highest university patent filer in the UK and is ranked 1st in the UK for university spin-outs, having created over 140 new companies in 25 years. In the last reported financial year we completed 529 licenses and consulting agreements. Isis Enterprise, our innovation management consultancy, works with university, government and industrial clients from offices around the world.

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