Students, professors and researchers from the university's branch campus in Guayaquil took part in the conference titled "Development of devices for monitoring patients with Parkinson's Disease" which was led by Monica Huerta, professor and member of the Telecommunications and Telematics Research Group (GITEL for its acronym in Spanish Grupo de Investigación en Telecomunicaciones y Telemática (GITEL) in Cuenca. 

 

Computing, electrical, electronics, automation, industrial and telecommunication engineering students learned about three devices created by UPS professors and students, guided by Professor Huerta, that enable people to monitor patients with Parkinson's disease in real time, diagnose the progress of the disease and improve the motor performance of patients with more advanced cognitive deterioration.

 

The devices are:

 

- STEP- a wireless device to monitor tremors using free software and hardware.

 

- Development of an application in Android for the statistical characterization of the Finger Tapping Test.

 

- Wireless device for detecting freezing episodes during operation. 

 

The creation of the first device will improve the care and diagnosis of people with Parkinson's by monitoring the tremors. "In GITEL devices and tools that facilitate a specialist to carry out an objective evaluation of the patient,"

 

For the development of the second device (the application) an analysis was performed with 64 healthy people between 50 and 83 years of age. The results showed that the system allows an objective measurement of FTT to be obtained.

 

The third device will allow easy interaction through an Android application, improving the lifestyle of low-income patients. According to Dr. Huerta, the use of this device will allow users to have greater autonomy, while patients between 72-75 years of age, especially women, react better to vibratory stimulus.

 

For the Research Coordinator in Guayaquil, Pablo Pérez Gosende, these conferences allow students and professors to increase their interest in research, focus on solving problems and contribute to the transformation of society.

 

"I am very pleased with this conference, I think now I have found the topic of my graduation project, I never thought it would be related to health", said Jorge Barrezueta, computing student.