An artificial intelligence tool developed by researchers at the University of Rochester can help people with Parkinson's disease remotely assess the severity of their symptoms within minutes. A study indescribes the new tool, which has users tap their fingers 10 times in front of a webcam to assess motor performance on a scale of 0-4.
The finger-tapping task was performed by 250 global participants with Parkinson's disease and the AI system's ratings were compared with those by three neurologists and three primary care physicians. While expert neurologists performed slightly better than the AI model, the AI model outperformed the primary care physicians with UPDRS certification.
"These findings could have huge implications for patients who have difficulty gaining access to neurologists, getting appointments, and traveling to the hospital," says Ehsan Hoque, an associate professor in Rochester's Department of Computer Science and co-director of the Rochester Human-Computer Interaction Laboratory."It's an example of how AI is being gradually introduced into health care to serve people outside of the clinic and improve health equity and access.