In-Home Remote Assessment of the MDS-UPDRS Part III: Multi-Cultural Development and Validation of a Guide for Patients

Abstract

Background: The shift toward virtualized care introduces challenges in assessing the motor severity of Parkinson's disease (PD). The Movement Disorder Society Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale (MDS-UPDRS) part III, the most used rating scale in PD, lacks validation for synchronous remote administration.

Objective: Our goal was to validate the usability of a patient guide to allow an accurate video-based MDS-UDPRS part III remote examination.

Methods: We conducted a multi-stage mixed methods study that included a team consensus for the concept of the guide, cognitive pretesting, and usability (system usability scale, [SUS]) testing in five sites (total n = 25 participants) with distinct linguistic and cultural contexts.

Results: A multi-language (English, Portuguese, Spanish, and traditional Chinese) largely pictograph guide of the MDS-UPDRS part III remote examination reached benchmark for usability (SUS score ≥68) in 25 participants who completed the synchronous remote assessment.

Conclusions: The MDS-UDPRS part III remote examination guide can be used remotely accurately, and facilitate clinical practice and research in a paradigm of telemedicine.

Keywords: MDS‐UPDRS; Parkinson's disease; telemedicine; video guide.

FIG. 1

Video protocol guide (English version) for remote administration of the Movement Disorder Society‐sponsored revision of the Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale (MDS‐UPDRS) part III.