SBIR Phase I:Biofeedback system for adults with Parkinson’s disease

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project is a wearable device and associated software that will decrease the cost of care and improve the quality of life of the 1+ M patients with Parkinson’s disease, their personal caregivers, and their medical providers.This project will increase our understanding of Parkinson’s disease and other neurological and motor disorders.It will reduce current costly treatments with an online solution using the device and associated software. The research objective is to develop the hardware, software application, and database that constitute a complete, working system which will improve the quality of life for Parkinson’s patients and improve the data available for Parkinson’s disease researchers.This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project will develop a wearable biomedical feedback device that communicates with a mobile application to alert users in real time when a specific physical vocal pathology is detected by the device.Post-event information can then be evaluated by users and their medical caregivers using a graphical user interface within the mobile application. Data will also be transmitted and stored in a database of people with Parkinson’s disease.Upon addition and refinement of new data, the technical results will include a wearable device, analytic software, and a database will be used to improve and fine-tune the software to improve both the identification, speed, and modality of correction as well as serve a highly valuable database for Parkinson’s researchers.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.