New Smart Pen Shows 96% Efficacy in Detecting Parkinson’s Disease

UCLA researchers have developed a smart pen that can detect Parkinson’s during its early stages when the symptoms relied upon for the usual way to diagnose it haven’t shown up yet. Initial tests of this pen revealed an accuracy rate of 96.22%. 

Currently, Parkinson’s is usually detected when it has advanced so much that it is difficult for existing medications to have any impact in slowing down its progression. This smart pen developed by the UCLA researchers offers an affordable and accessible way to leverage simple acts like writing on a piece of paper to detect the disease long before it manifests the signs doctors usually rely upon to diagnose the progressive condition. 

The pen has ferrofluid ink and a tip that is magnetoelastic. This design allows the pen to sense the motion of your hand while you write and this data is collected and analyzed rapidly. The pen also tracks hand movements as you lift the pen off the paper and lower it once again. In essence, the pen pays attention to how your nerves and muscles are behaving, and then decides whether the patterns unique to you suggest the possibility of Parkinson’s. 

Another unique feature of this pen is that it doesn’t require a battery or any other external source of energy. It is self-powering. As the tip and ink inside the pen move while you write or move the pen through the air, energy is created as a result of the magnetic changes triggered by those movements of the hand in which the pen is held. 

To test this tool, a pilot study was conducted. It involved 16 participants, three of whom had diagnoses of Parkinson’s. The volunteers were asked to use this pen to write on paper. Using a machine-learning model, the pen analyzed the movements involved as the volunteers used the pen to write and the findings revealed a 96.22% accuracy rate in flagging individuals with Parkinson’s. 

This pen offers transformative opportunities in PD detection since it is simple to make and use, is self-powering and can therefore be used in remote areas, can be used quickly to assess lots of people in a non-invasive way, and has a unique ability to detect the disease long before signs can be detected by any of the tests doctors have been relying on to diagnose the disease.. 

The researchers plan to conduct more extensive clinical trials to fine-tune this pen and then widen the scope of the neurological conditions it can detect. The widespread use of such simple tools would make any treatments commercialized by entities like Clene Inc. (NASDAQ: CLNN) of better use against Parkinson’s if the disease is caught early. 

NOTE TO INVESTORS: The latest news and updates relating to Clene Inc. (NASDAQ: CLNN) are available in the company’s newsroom at https://ibn.fm/CLNN 

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