title: Wearability assessment of a wearable system for Parkinson's disease remote monitoring based on a body area network of sensors.
abstract: Wearable technologies for health monitoring have become a reality in the last few years. So far, most research studies have focused on assessments of the technical performance of these systems, as well as the validation of the clinical outcomes. Nevertheless, the success in the acceptance of these solutions depends not only on the technical and clinical effectiveness, but on the final user acceptance. In this work the compliance of a telehealth system for the remote monitoring of Parkinson's disease (PD) patients is presented with testing in 32 PD patients. This system, called PERFORM, is based on a Body Area Network (BAN) of sensors which has already been validated both from the technical and clinical point for view. Diverse methodologies (REBA, Borg and CRS scales in combination with a body map) are employed to study the comfort, biomechanical and physiological effects of the system. The test results allow us to conclude that the acceptance of this system is satisfactory with all the levels of effect on each component scoring in the lowest ranges. This study also provided useful insights and guidelines to lead to redesign of the system to improve patient compliance.
authors.affiliation: Life Supporting Technologies, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Avenida Complutense 30, Madrid 28040, Spain. jcancela@lst.tfo.upm.es.
authors.forename: Jorge
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Cancela
authors.affiliation: Life Supporting Technologies, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Avenida Complutense 30, Madrid 28040, Spain. mpastorino@lst.tfo.upm.es.
authors.forename: Matteo
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Pastorino
authors.affiliation: Unit of Medical Technology and Intelligent Information Systems, Dept. of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Ioannina, 45110 Ioannina, Greece. atzallas@cc.uoi.gr.
authors.forename: Alexandros T
authors.initials: AT
authors.lastname: Tzallas
authors.affiliation: Unit of Medical Technology and Intelligent Information Systems, Dept. of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Ioannina, 45110 Ioannina, Greece. markos@cs.uoi.gr.
authors.forename: Markos G
authors.initials: MG
authors.lastname: Tsipouras
authors.affiliation: Unit of Medical Technology and Intelligent Information Systems, Dept. of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Ioannina, 45110 Ioannina, Greece. rigas@cs.uoi.gr.
authors.forename: Giorgios
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Rigas
authors.affiliation: Life Supporting Technologies, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Avenida Complutense 30, Madrid 28040, Spain. mta@lst.tfo.upm.es.
authors.forename: Maria T
authors.initials: MT
authors.lastname: Arredondo
authors.affiliation: Unit of Medical Technology and Intelligent Information Systems, Dept. of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Ioannina, 45110 Ioannina, Greece. fotiadis@cc.uoi.gr.
authors.forename: Dimitrios I
authors.initials: DI
authors.lastname: Fotiadis
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D003195:Computer Communication Networks / Q000295:instrumentation*; D004867:Equipment Design; D019544:Equipment Failure Analysis; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D018670:Monitoring, Ambulatory / Q000295:instrumentation*; D010300:Parkinson Disease / Q000175:diagnosis*; D010342:Patient Acceptance of Health Care; D017060:Patient Satisfaction; D017216:Telemedicine / Q000295:instrumentation*; D014584:User-Computer Interface