PVDoctor

Approximately 1600 patients die from Parkinson’s disease yearly in Bangladesh. More than 10 million people worldwide are living with Parkinson’s disease, which means it is the second most severe neurodegenerative disease in the world. People of any age can be affected by this neurological disorder. Symptoms may not be visible at the initial stage. As time progresses, the symptoms become visible. Currently, there is no cure for Parkinson’s disease. Treatment options are very limited. Most of the treatments are symptoms based, which is initially achieved by medication. Levodopa therapy is one of the prevalent treatments used to minimize the complications of long-time sufferings. The next option for the patient is surgery. There are two options for surgery. The first one is Lesion therapy, and the second one is Deep Brain Stimulation. Deep Brain Stimulation is considered the most advanced option so far is a life-threatening disease. LMIC countries like Bangladesh can't provide sufficient healthcare facilities for the people, especially those living in remote places. The mobile-based solution can be a useful tool for providing that service because it is available everywhere at an affordable price.

Parkinson’s patients are facing suffering and discrimination in our society. The main objective of this project is development of mobile based screening and monitoring tool of Parkinson disease. Public education and awareness programs should be conducted to eliminate Social stigma and discrimination against people with Parkinson’s disease. Our solution can play a vital role in promoting these campaigns and improving the quality of living of Parkinson’s patients.

To use our app, a user must install the PVDoctor application on his smartphone. He will have to register for the first time when he will be assigned a unique User ID and a password after registration. He can change the password afterward. Then the user can log in to the app with his User ID and start analyzing his PD symptoms. All the data from the patient will be secured in our cloud. He has to read out a text showing on the screen to record his voice. At the same time, he has to hold his phone in one hand as steady as possible while recording his voice so that both his voice and vibration of his hand can be recorded simultaneously using the voice recorder and accelerometer of his phone. Then app can upload the files to the system in the cloud. Both signals are stored in our database in the patient file under the User ID of that particular user. Then the samples are preprocessed to eliminate the noises and sent to the developed classifier for classification of PD. Now, if the classifier classifies the samples as positive signs of PD, then the system sends the user a message said "PD symptoms identified. You need to consult with a specialist." The system then shows the patient a list of PD healthcare centers and doctors with their location maps so that the patient can find out the nearest place to get help or health consultancy. Our application provides a list of remotely referable doctors in case of the nearest help centers' absence. PVDoctor also provides a helpline option, which can be accessed for basic PD information, medicines, suggestions, lifestyles as well as management, etc. But if the user does not have PD (as per our classifier decision), the system will send him a message- "No measurable PD symptoms identified." and store that information in the database.

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