Koneksa, a healthcare technology company pioneering evidence-based digital biomarkers, today announced the first collaboration in the Koneksa Academic Partnership Program for Parkinson’s Disease (KAPP-PD) to incorporate its Neuroscience Toolkit into research programs.

The first collaboration of the KAPP-PD program, with Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU), enables the inclusion of app-and actigraphy-based digital measures and electronic patient reported outcome (ePRO) instruments from Koneksa’s Neuroscience Toolkit into a study comparing short-acting versus long-acting levodopa in Parkinson’s disease. Koneksa’s Neuroscience Toolkit implements a variety of digital assessments that can be combined to collect data for measures of interest.

The OHSU team, led by Dr. Delaram Safarpour, MD, MSCE, FAAN, is investigating changes in the neurophysiological correlates of PD with carbidopa-levodopa immediate release compared to long-acting levodopa (Rytary), as well as changes in gait performance at intervals of 30 minutes for a total of 4 hours during each visit. This research will provide strong support for clinical profiles of short- versus long- acting levodopa in PD corresponding to objective physiological measures.

“We are collaborating with Koneksa to enhance our study’s objectives: We’ll be including smartphone- and actigraphy-based digital measures and electronic patient reported outcome (ePRO) instruments into our study,” said Martina Mancini, Ph.D., co-investigator of the study, director of the Balance Disorders Laboratory, and Associate Professor of Neurology, OHSU School of Medicine. “Our lab uses new technologies to better understand and measure motor impairments, with the goal of learning how to better help patients with these conditions. Novel, objective metrics, like those made possible with Koneksa’s technology and toolkit, allow us to expand upon what we’ve been able to do in the clinic. In particular, digital at-home measures of daily physical activity, gait and mobility, motor functionality, sleep, and ePRO measures of quality of life all have the potential to uniquely complement OHSU’s in-clinic assessments, offering new and real-world-setting patient insights to support the study’s objectives.”

“Koneksa is proud to extend our contribution to critical neuroscience research through KAPP-PD, and we’re delighted to get the program underway with our first collaboration,” said John Wagner, MD, Ph.D., Chief Medical Officer, Koneksa. “These measures will support OHSU in both in-clinic and at-home patient monitoring of critical parameters of interest for this study. We’re committed to helping to get new and better treatments to patients faster, and that’s a vision that OHSU’s Balance Disorders Laboratory shares.”