With the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic, face-to-face study visits became impossible, and Phase 2 of OxQUIP became primarily a remote monitoring/telehealth study in 2020. This included supervised visits via Microsoft Teams and unsupervised sessions of active tasks using smart devices. Rather than being an obstacle, this represented an opportunity. Even prior to the pandemic, telemedicine was becoming an increasingly popular option for parkinsonian patients. Telehealth approaches circumvent many of the burdens associated with clinic visits, such as the time, expense, discomfort of travel, and disruption to medication regimes. Telehealth allows patients to be monitored more frequently in their natural home environments, providing rich and unique datasets for analysis. It is our aim to ensure OxQUIP becomes the blueprint for successful telehealth approaches, with positive experiences for patients and researchers front and centre.

The data collected from this phase of the study is complex and abundant, with analyses ongoing. We are excited to compare the quality of supervised, clinical data from Phase 1 to the unsupervised, at-home data of Phase 2. Additionally, we are interested in the qualitative perspective of at-home testing of participants. What is the impact on participant experience of seeing a clinician digitally vs. in-person? Does the use of teleconference software ease the process of clinical appointments, or does it create added stress? Telehealth is a new frontier for the monitoring of many conditions, but we believe that it will truly transform the space of neurodegenerative research for the better.