Beneufit Announces the First Outcome-based Guarantee for a Parkinson’s Disease Digital Health Application
SAN FRANCISCO, CA (PRWEB) May 18, 2017 -- Beneufit, Inc., a digital health company whose pdFIT™ service combines physical exercise with biofeedback in an effort to improve the physical symptoms of Parkinson's disease, announces their “Improvement, Guaranteed™” program. This first-of-a-kind guarantee correlates compliance with their service with an improvement in users’ finger tapping test (circeTap™) scores. Subscribers who use pdFIT™ as recommended by Beneufit and do not improve their circleTap scores within 6 months will receive the service free of charge.
“What we’re really doing is taking the findings from our internal studies and building them into our business model,” explains Beneufit CEO Jeff Broderick. “We recently completed a two-year study of people who’ve been using the application since April 2014. That population had statistically significantly improved circleTap scores over a 24 month period. The aspect they all had in common was that they continued to adhere to the protocol.”
The service, which includes the pdFIT™ app, a lifetime warrantied heart rate monitor and cycling cadence sensors, medication reminders, dedicated health coaches, and a caregiver dashboard, costs $29.50 a month and is available at https://www.beneufit.com.
Beneufit's circleTap™ finger tapping test allows users to objectively assess their manual dexterity and fine motor control on their own through the pdFIT™ app. The 60-second test is based on finger tapping tests that have been used in clinical trials of Parkinson’s disease over the past 30 years. The alternate finger tapping test is a valid, sensitive measure of bradykinesia that correlates with the UPDRS motor score as well as with other validated clinical measures.*
The same “Improvement, Guaranteed™” program applies to everyone Beneufit works with including fitness centers, physical therapy facilities, health systems, payers, and drug companies. For more information on Beneufit’s platform, studies, or their upcoming large-scale study please visit https://www.beneufit.com/studies. As with any digital health application, use of the Beneufit platform should be done with the knowledge and oversight of patients’ physician or healthcare providers.
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 several studies. ***, **** The foundation of the Beneufit digital health approach lies in the high-cadence cycling benefits discovered by Dr. Jay Alberts of the Cleveland Clinic.”*****
About Beneufit, Inc.
Beneufit's mission is to empower people to improve their medical condition through exercise, while supporting vital public health research in an open and ongoing fashion. More information is available at http://www.beneufit.com.
References
- Tavares A, Jefferis G, Koop M, Hill B, Hastie T, Heit G, Bronte-Stewart H. Quantitative Measurements of Alternating Finger Tapping in Parkinson’s Disease Correlate With UPDRS Motor Dissability and Reveal the Improvement in Fine Motor Control From Medication and Deep Brain Stimulation. Mov Disord. J., Vol. 20 No 10, 2005, DOI:10.1002/mds.20556
** 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. Jaskolski, and A. Jaskolska. "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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