VMT

Background:

Parkinson’s disease is the second most common progressive neurodegenerative disorder, after Alzheimer’s disease.

• ~1.5 million Americans are currently diagnosed with PD and 60,000 new cases are diagnosed each year.
• More than 2% of the population over 65 years of age is affected.
• 5%-10% of patients with PD are misdiagnosed (have Parkinson’s but are told they have something else), suggesting a higher prevalence of the disease.

Early diagnosis leads to drug treatment that may delay the deterioration of quality of life.

VMT

The VMT (Visuo-Motor-test) method was developed by Prof. Hocherman, of the faculty of medicine at the Technion. Prof. Hocherman has been involved in basic brain research for over 25 years.
The VMT was developed within the framework of his research on neurological motor control and addresses the direct need for an effective PD screening test.
VMT is a US Patented, simple medical device for diagnosing Parkinson’s disease.
The algorithm analyzes and scores the performance in independent tests, comparing L&R arms:

1. Test Time.
2. Directional Error (DirEr).
3. Mean percent time of DirEr>50%.
4. Distance from Path.
5. Velocity of hand movement.
6. Number of tracking interruptions.

While some of these parameters are standard, measures 2, 3 and 6 are unique to the present system and are patent protected.

Advantages:

• Large target market- many billions in direct and indirect costs.
• Competitive advantage over current manual solutions.
• Strong value proposition for patients, neurologists and payers (deferring costly care).
• US Patent 5,772,611, approved in 1998.
• FDA clearance 510(k) – “evaluation of visuo-motor performance disturbances”.

Clinical applications:

• Screening for early phase PD patients.
• Differential diagnosis of PD Vs. Essential Tremor and potentially other cognitive & motor dysfunction.
• Optimization of drug treatment for PD patients.

Non-Parkinson patients:

• Rehabilitation of spatial-cognitive skills in stroke victims.
• Evaluation of attention disorders (ADD/ADHD).

Cost of PD – direct and indirect

The financial cost of Parkinson’s Disease to individuals, government and society combined is in the order of $24 billion per year.
The study finds that indirect costs – e.g. disability payments by government and insurance plans and lost income due to forced early retirement are $15,000 per patient per year.
The direct costs of medicines, surgery, doctor visits, hospitals and nursing homes are $8,800 per patient per year.

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