Beyond center-based testing: Understanding and improving functioning with wearable technology in MS

Abstract

Wearable sensors are designed to be worn on the body or embedded into portable devices (e.g. smartphones and smartwatches), allowing continuous patient-based monitoring, objective outcomes measuring, and feedback delivering on daily-life activities. Within the medicine domain, there has been a rapid increase in the development, testing, and use of wearable technologies especially in the context of neurological diseases. Although wearables represent promising tools also in multiple sclerosis (MS), the research on their application in MS is still ongoing, and further studies are required to assess their reliability and accuracy to monitor body functions and disability in people with MS (pwMS). Here, we provided a comprehensive overview of the opportunities, potential challenges, and limitations of the wearable technology use in MS. In particular, we classified previous findings within this field into macro-categories, considered crucial for disease management: assessment, monitoring, intervention, advice, and education. Given the increasing pivotal role played by wearables, current literature suggests that for pwMS, the time is right to shift from a center-based traditional therapeutic paradigm toward a personalized patient-based disease self-management. On this way, we present two ongoing initiatives aimed at implementing a continuous monitoring of pwMS and, consequently, providing timely and appropriate care interventions.

Keywords: Wearable; center-based care; patient-based care; self-assessment; self-monitoring.