Shimmer Research, a global leader in wearable technology for research applications, and ClearSky Medical Diagnostics, a leader in analyzing wearable data for medical applications announced they are partnering to bring a new level of analytic capabilities to the use of wearable sensors in clinical research.
This partnership will employ Shimmer’s Verisense™ wearable sensors platform, which has been designed specifically for use in clinical research, with ClearSky algorithms and machine learning to transform wearables data into actionable insights for central nervous system (CNS) diseases.
Verisense is a comprehensive and flexible solution for reliably capturing accurate and complete biometric data. Worn on the wrist, the Verisense Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) sensor can monitor activity and sleep seamlessly. But Verisense can be used for any IMU application with up to seven sensors worn on different parts of a participant’s body, making it invaluable for studying complex musculoskeletal or neurological conditions, such as dystonia or epilepsy.
ClearSky Medical Diagnostics specializes in developing technologies for the diagnosis and monitoring of Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease and other neurodegenerative conditions. Its clinically-validated medical devices have been used in medical centers worldwide and in clinical trials to demonstrate the efficacy of new drugs.
For example, ClearSky’s LID-Monitor can distinguish Levodopa-induced dyskinesia from Parkinson’s tremors, allowing doctors to optimize Levodopa dosage. This approach significantly improves patients’ quality of life and also saves time and money due to the reduction in consultations required. ClearSky’s technical team has more than 15 years’ experience analyzing clinical trial data and has developed a range of machine learning technologies to meet current and future clinical needs.
“The Verisense platform is truly a breakthrough for conducting clinical research,” said Dr. Stephen Smith, co-founder of ClearSky Medical Diagnostics. “It can provide the continuous raw data from wearables needed for sophisticated algorithms, yet places almost no burden on the participant or the clinical site. It has multiple layers of redundancy and quality checking to ensure that high-quality data are collected without interruption.”
“Literally thousands of researchers have been using Shimmer sensors for more than 10 years to develop algorithms to understand the data from wearable sensors,” said Gill. “By capturing continuous raw data, the Verisense platform allows us to leverage tens of thousands of person-years of research. We anticipate collaborating with many leading researchers and are excited that ClearSky shares our vision.”
