Dr. Jerome Lisk, Director of Movement Disorders at CHRISTUS® Trinity Mother Frances Health System Joins Beneufit to Develop Parkinson's Disease Medical Management Tools
SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. (PRWEB) October 17, 2016 -- Beneufit, Inc, a digital health company that combines disease-specific software with mobile devices and wearables to improve patient outcomes, announced that Director of Movement Disorder at CHRISTUS® Trinity Mother Frances Health System, Dr. Jerome Lisk joins Beneufit’s advisory board to assist in the development of medical management tools to help physicians optimize treatment plans for Parkinson’s disease patients.
“In addition to being a practicing physician and leader in the Movement Disorder community, Dr. Lisk is passionate about bioengineering and technology. His ideas bridge a very important gap between the potentials of technology and the challenges of optimizing a patient’s treatment plan.” says Beneufit CEO Jeff Broderick “Physicians have limited information regarding the symptoms that effect People with Parkinson’s (PwP). More information is better only if it delivers clear, concise insights. Those insights should result in more effective treatments.”
Beneufit’s pdFIT™ mobile app works with fitness wearables and empowers people to alter the course of their disease. The goal of the program is to reduce symptoms, delay disease progression and improve quality of life by leveraging exercise and providing tools to help PwP manage their condition.
Tools such as Beneufit's circleTap™ finger tapping test allows people to periodically assess manual dexterity and fine motor control on their own through the pdFIT™ app. The circleTap™ test is the objective outcome measure which PwP has been using to gauge their improvements in motor control. This data, available through the app and web-based dashboard, is for their personal use and can be shared with their physician or care provider. Dr. Lisk will be involved in the development and validation of additional tools relating to exercise, medication and it’s effect on motor and non-motor symptoms.
“Having better information improves medical management.” explains Dr. Lisk. “Patients experiencing diminished attention and cognition do not provide accurate information. Having a history of objective outcome measures helps me make more informed decisions. That combined with information gathered during the patient visit enables me to make the most effective treatment plan possible.”
Parkinson’s disease is a neurodegenerative disease for which there is growing evidence of exercise’s positive impact on symptoms and disease progression.* Cycling in particular has been shown to improve outcomes in numerous studies. **, *** The foundation of the Beneufit digital health treatment approach lies in the high-cadence cycling benefits discovered by Dr. Jay Alberts of the Cleveland Clinic.”****
Beneufit presented insights from it’s service "Improving Parkinson’s Disease Outcomes with Mobile Software and Wearables Therapy" at the World Parkinson Congress 2016 in Portland Oregon.
About Beneufit, Inc.
Beneufit is a digital health company that combines disease-specific software with mobile devices, wearables and data analytics to monitor and change behavior in a manner that improves medical outcomes, while supporting vital public health research in an open and ongoing fashion. More information is available at http://www.beneufit.com.
References
- Ridgel, Angela L., Corey A. Peacock, Emily J. Fickes, and Chul-Ho Kim. "Active-Assisted Cycling Improves Tremor and Bradykinesia in Parkinson's Disease." Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation 93.11 (2012): 2049-054. Web.
** Marusiak, J., E. Zeligowska, J. Mencel, K. Kisiel-Sajewicz, J. Majerczak, J. Zoladz, A. Jaska Lski, and A. Jaska Lska. "Interval Training-induced Alleviation of Rigidity and Hypertonia in Patients with Parkinson's Disease Is Accompanied by Increased Basal Serum Brain-derived Neurotrophic Factor." J Rehabil Med Journal of Rehabilitation Medicine 47.4 (2015): 372-75. Web.
*** Uygur, Mehmet, Maria Bellumori, Kevin Lenoir, Kendall Poole, Ingrid Pretzer-Aboff, and Christopher A. Knight. "Immediate Effects of High-speed Cycling Intervals on Bradykinesia in Parkinson's Disease." Physiotherapy Theory and Practice 31.2 (2014): 77-82. Web.
**** Alberts, J.L., Linder, S.M., Penko, A.L., Lowe, M.J. & Phillips, M. It is not about the bike, it is about the pedaling: forced exercise and Parkinson's disease. Exercise and sport sciences reviews 39, 177-186 (2011).
Jeff Broderick, Beneufit, Inc., http://beneufit.com/, +1 415-500-2770, [email protected]
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