Parkinson's Walking Glasses

Background

Parkinson's Disease (PD) is the most prevalent neurological degenerative disease, affecting 1% of the population over age 50. In the UK about 130,000 people are affected. Despite constant improvement in drug regimes, gait disorders are common in the course of the disease. Up to 30% of patients are estimated to suffer from symptoms such as 'freezing'. These symptoms are also the cause of frequent falls in this patient group.

Problem

The use of visual or acoustic stimulation, known as cuing, is found to be effective in improving gait. However, no dedicated, effective and easy-to-use device is available to patients that provide these cues in the home environment.

Solution

A team at the Royal London Hospital has developed a simple but effective device to provide optical cues. The so called Walking Glasses, provide virtual cue lines that help maintain and improve gait. Cuing is the use of an external visual or acoustic stimulus to maintain or initiate gait. By using these external stimuli, Parkinson's disease patients can make use of new neurological pathways to control their motor functions. The technique is effective to initiate gait and maintain a proper gait pattern.

Key Features and Benefits:

• Variable optic and acoustic stimulus - clearly visible cue with optional auditory cue and adjustable pitch with proven clinical benefit
• Universal device design - can be worn as normal prescription glasses therefore cost to manufacture is low

Market Potential

There are an estimated 1.5M Parkinson's disease patients in total in the EU, US and Japan. We estimate that the Walking Glasses will be of significant benefit to ca. 20% of the patients resulting in an addressable market of 300,000 patients.

This product is currently available to license from NHSIL.