Neuro note #1

For this neuro note I decided to listen to a TED talk about an a new emerging way of detecting Parkinson's disease in patients and also how to track the progression of Parkinson's disease. The TED talk is titled: Max Little: A test for Parkinson's with a phone call. I stumbled upon this TED talk link on the Resources for OT students and practitioners page on professor Lancaster's blog. I chose to listen to this TED talk because I find Parkinson's disease very interesting, and I have actually worked with several patients with Parkinson's disease at a SNF before I started OT school, so I figured I could possibly relate the information to something I have already seen in a patient with Parkinson's. The TED talk featured a man named Max Little, who talks about a way of detecting Parkinson's disease by recording yourself speaking for about 30 seconds. He explains that just as limbs are affected by tremors and rigidity, your vocal cords can also be affected as well. In order to test this, they would use clinical voice signaling software, and the latest machine learning to find out exactly where someone falls on the disease scale. This is something that would have a huge impact on how they diagnose patients, because it is less time consuming and more cost effective than having to go to the neurologist and get a 20 minute test that can cost over $300. Patients would be able to do this in the comfort of their own homes, and it would not cost them a dime! He stated that the Parkinson's voice initiative (PVI) is the organization that is currently researching this and they are aiming to collect enough data to prove this. Overall, I thought this TED talk definitely contributed to the content we will be learning in neurological aspects, because Parkinson's is one the major neurological disorders in the U.S and we will probably see a lot of these cases when working in the field of OT. I also think that if this idea is proven successful, OTs can implement this into their practice because it is using a more of a client centered approach in terms of cost effectiveness, time, and overall patient satisfaction. I would definitely recommend this TED talk to anyone interested in Parkinsons' disease or anyone interested in geriatrics!