Kneu Health has received U.S. FDA clearance for an Apple Watch-based tool that continuously monitors tremor and dyskinesia in people with Parkinson's disease. The new capability expands Kneu's existing FDA-cleared smartphone assessments by adding passive, around-the-clock monitoring of motor symptoms, giving clinicians a more complete view of how patients' symptoms fluctuate throughout daily life.
The system uses the Apple Watch's accelerometer and gyroscope to continuously measure movement patterns and distinguish Parkinsonian tremor from dyskinesia, the involuntary movements that can occur as a side effect of long-term dopaminergic treatment. The passive data is combined with active smartphone-based motor and cognitive assessments already available through Kneu's mobile application.
Parkinson's symptoms can vary substantially throughout the day as medication levels change, making them difficult to evaluate during short clinical appointments. Clinicians have traditionally relied on physical examinations and patients' recollection of symptoms between visits. Kneu's approach instead creates longitudinal profiles showing when tremors, dyskinesia and other motor fluctuations occur in patients' everyday environments.
The resulting data could help neurologists identify changes in disease progression and better understand how patients respond to medication. By identifying periods when treatment effects wear off or when dyskinesia increases, clinicians may be able to adjust medication doses and timing more precisely while reducing reliance on subjective symptom diaries.
Developed from research at the University of Oxford, Kneu's technology is already being used across healthcare organizations in the U.S. and the UK's National Health Service. The company reports that 79% of eligible patients adopted watch-based monitoring within two weeks during its initial UK deployments, suggesting strong acceptance of passive monitoring among patients.
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