Originally designed to educate the general public about the difficulties faced by people with dementia Parkinson’sa vibrating pen developed by two British students has proven to benefit patients.
Called the “ARC pen”, the prototype developed by two students from the Royal College of Art and Imperial College London would, against all odds, make it possible to correct micrography: the tendency to write smaller and smaller over time, a symptom commonly seen in patients with Parkinson’s. According to students’ observations, 86% of patients who tested it write bigger after using this pen.
It would seem that it is by stimulating the muscles of the hand that the “ARC pen” allows patients to better control their writing. After using this device, patients would therefore find it easier to control their tremors in order to write legibly.
This pen prototype is now developed by Dopa Solutions. At the same time, this innovation company is considering other concrete ways to help Parkinson’s patients, by integrating these vibrations into everyday objects such as computer mice, for example.
In the same spirit, Google announced in November 2014 the marketing of a spoon innovative way to compensate for hand tremors associated with Parkinson’s disease.
In France, the Parkinson disease affects 1% of people over 65, i.e. between 100,000 and 120,000 people, with 8,000 new cases declared each year. Tremors are the most marked symptoms of this neurodegenerative disease.
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