Michael J. Fox Foundation Awards $1 Million to Develop and Validate Web-Based Clinical Assessments for Parkinson’s Disease

NEW YORK, Dec. 22 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — The Michael J. Fox Foundation awarded a total of just over $1 million to four research teams working to develop and validate Web-based clinical assessments that could be used to improve routine clinical care, as well as clinical trials of new interventions, for Parkinson’s disease.

The funding was awarded under the Foundation’s Developing and Validating Web-Based Clinical Assessments for Parkinson’s Disease program, part of MJFF’s ongoing efforts to develop research tools that can speed the availability of life-transforming treatments for Parkinson’s disease. The initiative seeks to drive the creation and testing of Web-based tools that would allow any patient with a personal computer and an Internet connection to participate in clinical research from the comfort of their own home, decreasing hurdles to participation in critically needed clinical studies.

The funded projects are listed below. Full information, including grant abstracts and researcher bios, is available on the Foundation’s Web site — www.michaeljfox.org.

Online Motor and Cognitive Analysis System

Jay L. Alberts, Ph.D., Cleveland Clinic

A Web-based Assessment of Visual and Spatial Symptoms of Parkinson’s Disease

Melissa Amick, Ph.D., Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior, Warren Alpert School of Medicine, Brown University; Memorial Hospital of Rhode Island

Wearable Sensors and a Web-Based Application to Monitor Patients with Parkinson’s Disease in the Home Environment

Paolo Bonato, Ph.D., Harvard Medical School; Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital

Developing and Validating Spanish Language Web-based Clinical Assessments for Parkinson’s Disease

Esther Cubo M.D., Ph.D., Hospital General Yague, Burgos, Spain

About The Michael J. Fox Foundation

Founded in 2000, The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research is dedicated to ensuring the development of a cure for Parkinson’s disease within the decade through an aggressively funded research agenda. The Foundation has funded $129 million in research to date.

SOURCE Michael J. Fox Foundation