The American Parkinson Disease Association (APDA) launches a new and improved APDA Symptom Tracker App 2.0 – a mobile application for people living with Parkinson’s disease (PD).

The updated version, which remains free of charge, features enhanced functionality that aims to significantly improve the ability of a person with Parkinson’s disease (PD) to easily and accurately track their PD symptoms and medications, and relay that important information to members of their medical team. A Spanish-language version of the app is now available as well.

The app guides people through a simple set of questions that has them rate how certain motor symptoms (such as tremor, rigidity, balance) and non-motor symptoms (hallucinations, delusions, fatigue, anxiety, depression, and others) are affecting them. It then creates a graph indicating which symptoms are most impacting their quality of life in which can be saved in the “My Library” section of the app, and can also be emailed directly to members of their health care team, right from the app. Over time, people can compare the results to see if certain symptoms are getting worse, and determine which symptoms need to be addressed more urgently than others.

New Features

APDA Symptom Tracker App 2.0 boasts the following new features:

  • An interactive medication tracker where you can enter the specific medications/doses and the time of day you take them which helps identify opportunities for better symptom management (medication dosage/timing is an incredibly specific and often tricky aspect of life with PD)
  • Helpful notifications and reminders including:

             reminders to enter symptom data into the app
             push notifications about helpful education programs and updates on treatments
             reminders to share information with the clinician prior to appointments

  • A Spanish-language version that has been fully created for and by Spanish-speaking people (not simply translated from the English version)

“As a movement disorder specialist, the more my patients can tell me about their symptoms, the more I can help them. I can see how they’re feeling at that one moment, but to be able to see on a chart how they’ve been feeling at other times since I last saw them would be hugely beneficial for me.

“And now if they track their medications with the app as well, it will help me see possible correlations between dosing and their symptoms. The upgraded APDA Symptom Tracker App benefits not only the patient, but it helps me as their doctor.”

— Rebecca Gilbert, MD, PhD, Chief Scientific Officer, APDA

The APDA Symptom Tracker also has a special “Questions for the Doctor” feature that generates a list of suggested follow-up items for people to review with their doctor about symptoms and concerns they are currently experiencing, but also about preventative care.

“Acadia is pleased to support the development of the APDA Symptom Tracker as a helpful tool for patients, caregivers and providers to keep track of motor and non-motor symptoms associated with Parkinson’s.

“With the features of this latest release, which includes a Spanish-language version of the app, we hope to broaden the reach of this important resource for the PD community.”

— Ponni Subbiah, MD, MPH, Senior Vice President, Global Head of Medical Affairs and Chief Medical Officer at Acadia

The APDA Symptom Tracker App can be downloaded for free from the Apple App Store or Google Play.

[Source(s): American Parkinson’s Disease Association, PRWeb]


Related Content:
Michael J. Fox Foundation Grant Extends The California Parkinson’s Disease Registry
COVID-19: A ‘Perfect Storm’ for Parkinson’s?
Parkinson’s Dementia: It’s All in the Gut