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[00:00:35] Dr. Michele Matarazzo: So Álvaro is a member of the technology task force and he's also the chair of the eDiary committee.
So what are the main and the most important things that are happening in technology and movement disorders and what is happening during this Congress.
[00:00:50] Dr. Álvaro Sánchez-Ferro: Yeah, thanks for the question. So I think that we are witnessing like a very unique moment where we are like seeing movement disorders, practice digitalizing, you know, so what we are gonna see here in the conference are gonna be like latest developments in several areas.
We all probably are aware that the sensors know wearable sensors are making a big change in how we evaluate patients know and inform our clinical decisions. So that's gonna be part of as well of what we will see here at the conference. We are seeing the development of all the digital like tools. I mean, you mentioned for example that the society is investing in developing an electronic diary for characterizing like patients manifestation. So this is something that we are also working on and it's gonna be part of the activities that we'll be doing here. We just have a meeting about that. And we are gonna transition as well of patient care, not just on using cell phones, but we are more and more being able to evaluate patients in their like home setting. Everyday life setting. And we are also gonna be seeing like some of these developments here on top of that also in the program we have as well, like advances on DBS and other technologies imaging as well. So I think that overall we're gonna have a very rich program of technologies and developments in this meeting in Madrid.
[00:01:57] Dr. Michele Matarazzo: And so what do you think of all of these technologies that you were mentioning, what do you think we are going to meet first in the clinical practice?
[00:02:06] Dr. Álvaro Sánchez-Ferro: For sure. Obviously wearable sensors. I mean, in clinical practice, wearable sensors are starting to be used, not at every site, but I mean, we are seeing that, for example, in most clinical trials, now wearable sensors are starting to be one of the endpoints.
Some of us and other colleagues have experienced using them for like clinical practice. So I would say that that is already kind of a present technology. No, it's a new technology, but also kind of already like adopted in the clinical practice. I think that more and more, we will start adopting like these different like systems to evaluate patients.
As I said, from the home, not just wearables, also like we will use like a webcams, different sensors placed in the home setting. There were like some very recent, amazing technology. Developed by some folks at MIT within, Parkinson's using like the wifi signal. So I think that more and more, we are gonna see you know these different sensors that are gonna provide information on how patients are moving, which is very relevant to us.
And we are gonna be able to make clinical decisions based on this information.
[00:03:05] Dr. Michele Matarazzo: Great. And now the last question is you're very much involved with a lot of technology related things of the society. You already touched a little bit upon the eDiaries. What are the other things that the society is doing in this area, in the area of technologies, maybe the task force, what are the novel things that are coming in the next few years?
[00:03:23] Dr. Álvaro Sánchez-Ferro: Yeah. I think that society's in a unique place as well for fostering this digital transformation of movement disorders. No. And as you said, there are like several efforts that are being done. The technology taskforce that has been and is been led by Walter Maetzler and Alberto you know is very active on creating like recommendations, guidelines. And also like informing how this digital transformation needs to happen. There are very good papers out there that are highly cited and just you know inform how technologies will need to be deployed. So that's an area where the society is working actively, you know, and recommending how the technology needs to be adapted and used.
As I said before, also the society is also like making a lot of investment and strategic decisions on. As well becoming a leader on some of these digital tools that are gonna be used. We mentioned that the eDiary that is still in a conceptual phase, but the society is planning to invest resources now developing electronic diary.
The thread is also like a migrating the whole like scale portfolio to digital and electronic format. So there is operate ongoing where the MDS-UPDRS and MDS-NMS are being developed in an electronic software format. So I think in general, let's say this, having a very active role on technology development as well.
[00:04:31] Dr. Michele Matarazzo: Well, great. Thank you very much for sharing with us. All of these novelties and thank you for being with us today. Enjoy the rest of the Congress.
[00:04:38] Dr. Álvaro Sánchez-Ferro: Thank you, my pleasure.