AI Video Analysis Tool Helps Assess Parkinson’s Symptoms

A new open-source tool called VisionMD may help healthcare providers assess motor symptoms in people living with Parkinson’s disease and other movement disorders, using artificial intelligence (AI) to analyze simple video recordings, according to a recent study. How VisionMD Works Developed by Diego Guarin, PhD, at the University of Florida, VisionMD allows clinicians to quickly and easily review videos of individuals performing tasks like finger tapping. This can help track changes over time and better understand how a person is responding to treatment. Dr. Guarin collaborated with experts at UF Health’s Fixel Institute to refine the tool. Offering More Objective and Sensitive Assessments Published in npj Parkinson’s Disease, the study showed that VisionMD uses computer vision, a type of AI, to measure aspects of movement such as speed and range. The goal is to offer a more consistent, scalable, and sensitive way to assess motor changes, helping reduce differences that can sometimes happen between human raters. Detecting Changes With Treatment Researchers used VisionMD to analyze videos of people living with Parkinson’s who were undergoing deep brain stimulation (DBS) or taking levodopa: For those receiving DBS, the software detected larger, more consistent finger tapping when stimulation was active. For those taking levodopa, VisionMD picked up significant changes in the speed of movement. These results suggest that VisionMD can capture meaningful motor changes related to different treatments. Reliable Across Different Users VisionMD showed high reliability, no matter who was using it — whether movement disorder specialists or medical students. It also identified very small changes in movement, sometimes less than 1%, highlighting its sensitivity in capturing subtle differences that might be missed in a traditional assessment. Key Features of VisionMD VisionMD was designed with accessibility and security in mind: Open-source and freely available for others to adapt Runs locally on computers to better protect personal information Simple to use, processing videos in just a few seconds Currently supports four motor tasks from a common clinical assessment, with plans to expand further Researchers believe VisionMD could speed up the discovery of new treatments and support more personalized care for people living with Parkinson’s and other movement disorders. A Growing Community of Users VisionMD is already being used by teams in Germany, Spain, and Italy. Its early adoption suggests it could make a positive difference for many individuals around the world.