A Feasibility Study on a Cost-Effective Iot-Based Tremor Monitoring System for Early Parkinson’s Assessment in Malaysia

Abstract

Parkinson Disease (PD) is a progressive neurodegenerative problem in Malaysia that has a severe influence on the quality of life, and its cost to the healthcare system is also a great burden to the national healthcare. With the increase in the number of the aging population, the conventional clinical diagnostic systems, including the Unified Parkinson’s Disease Rating Scale (UPDRS), have key implementation obstacles. These are high cost of specialized equipment, localization of neurologists in major towns, and the economic burden of patients having to attend hospitals frequently in rural or underserved areas. This feasibility study helps fill these socio-technical gaps by introducing a cost-efficient IoT-based tremor monitoring prototype that would be specific to the Malaysian healthcare setting. Its platform consists of an ESP32 microcontroller and MPU6050 inertial sensor that are able to record high-precision real-time hand tremor data. With the use of Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) and Euclidean distance algorithms, the device identifies important tremor features and predicts severity of the disease directly in line with the standards of the UPDRS. Initial testing at the prototype level demonstrates a technical accuracy of 80%, indicating a good screening instrument that can fill the gap between home-based monitoring and clinical intervention. In addition to technical performance, the innovation is concerned with healthcare equity and social inclusion. With the help of a low-cost architecture, the system is providing a scalable solution to the families who cannot afford costly diagnosis options. Its small and easy to use structure gives patients and caregivers the ability to be proactive in their health management and helps them to find the diagnosis earlier and to maintain care. This study has shown that engineering innovation can be a critical resource to social welfare, which can help decrease the overall economic cost of Malaysian population health in the long run and provide the most developed neurodegenerative monitoring a luxury that can be a standard of care provided to everyone. This work establishes the technical foundation for future clinical trials to validate the device in a real-world patient environment.