LOCEN Research Topic: Developing Android applications for medical diagnosis and therapy

Research topic

A number of neurological diseases are characterized by abnormal motor behaviours. For example, Parkinson's disease (PD) patients could show tremor at rest, rigidity or freezing; Tourette syndrome (TS) patients tipically exhibit motor tics, subjects affected by Essential Tremor (ET) could show tremor during voluntary movements, etc (Pullman, 1998; DeKosky & Marek, 2003). For several neurological diseases, the current diagnosis is mainly based on clinical observation which relies on skills and experiences of a trained specialist. Thus, an additional method is desirable to help in the diagnosis process and possibly improve the detection of the early manifestation of the disease as well as the measurement of its severity. Many studies have reported that the analysis of drawings performed by patients may be useful in the diagnosis of motor dysfunctions in several diseases including PD, ET, dystonia, stroke, etc (Saunders‐Pullman et al., 2008; Surangsrirat & Thanawattano, 2012).

Research specific problems
  • What are the indices that we could measure from drawings performed by motor disease patients (e.g. PD or ET patients) in order to improve diagnosis and monitoring of the disease ?
  • How can we build a mobile, safe, easy to use, inexpensive, application for detection of movement disorders with a comprehensive test analysis according to the indices from drawings performed by patients?
Research method
  • Deveoping an andorid application for or detection of movement disorders with a comprehensive test analysis.
Requested motivations of the candidate
  • Strong interest in the topic and motivation to carry out research on it (very important)
  • Desire to acquire the knowledge and methods of the group

Requested skills of the candidate

  • Capacity of programming in one of C++ or Java
  • Capacity to read and understand scientific papers in English.
  • Capacity to contribute to write reports in English
References
  • Surangsrirat, D., Thanawattano, C. (2012). Android application for spiral analysis in Parkinson’s Disease. In Proceedings of IEEE Southeastcon, Orlando, 1–6.
  • Pullman, S. L. (1998). Spiral analysis: a new technique for measuring tremor with a digitizing tablet. Movement Disorders, 13, 85-89.
  • DeKosky, S. T., & Marek, K. (2003). Looking backward to move forward: early detection of neurodegenerative disorders. Science, 302, 830-834.
  • Saunders‐Pullman, R., Derby, C., Stanley, K., Floyd, A., Bressman, S., Lipton, R. B., ... & Pullman, S. L. (2008). Validity of spiral analysis in early Parkinson's disease. Movement disorders, 23, 531-537.