[MUSIC] Many of our efforts to date, patients have instrumental, and not only participating in the study for which we're very thankful, but in the actual design and conduct of the study. So we had, for our telemedicine study, we had a patient who was a member of our steering committee. Who helped in the design, conduct, and interpretation of the results. We had a patient advisor group that gave us invaluable guidance on everything from our website. To helping recruit participants that participate in this study. In our smartphone application, we had a group of dedicated volunteers, who were willing to test out the smartphone application, and give us feedback and suggestions. And importantly, the study itself, we enabled people to give us suggestions on how to improve the app. And we received over 20,000 suggestions on how to improve the app. Many of which were incorporated in subsequent versions of it. We're trying to identify, what are the needs of patients and provide them the means for them to articulate their own needs, and their own values, and their own preferences. And we think and hope that some of the tools that we're developing, whether that's receiving care in their homes on their terms. Or being able to participate in research on their phones, on their terms, are ways for them to do that. I was very fortunate when I was here at the University of Rochester. I think I was a fellow or maybe a junior faculty member to receive a KL2 Development Award. That let me work with outstanding people including Dr. Bob Holloway, Dr. Ira Schosin, Dr. Karl Kepperts, and developing my early research interests. Which were honestly ill-formed, not well formed. And over that time it let me explore new areas of research, including some new things like telemedicine. Smartphones weren't quite on the radar screen 10 years ago. The idea that you could use a smartphone to conduct a clinical research wasn't quite there, but Town Medicine was. As was, you know, trying to better understand how we can more effectively and efficiently develop new drugs for neuro degenerative conditions like Parkinson's Disease and Huntington's Disease I think, three or five years from now, we're going to view telemedicine as blase. And the idea that patients should be able to receive care on their home seems self-evident. And we'll say, what the heck was the big deal at the time? And we'll also think increasingly recognized that we shouldn't be asking research participants who have oftentimes very disabling conditions. And have overburdened caregivers to come to us to participate in research studies on our terms. That we should just like we are doing for care, enable research participants to participate in clinical trials on their terms. We should bring the trials to them, rather than asking patients who are burdened by diseases to come see us on ours. When Apple released this research kit in 2014, as an Open Source platform for developing research studies, it was quite new. So, the smartphone was only about eight years old now. And the idea of using a smart phone to conduct clinical research was very much a foreign idea. And they were working with academics, which was relatively new to them. And they weren't certain that academics could keep their mouths quiet, and not leak out the news of their substantial new effort. And so, they made the announcement in the morning about ResearchKit, and later in the day, we got news, they were able to track data in real time. That over 2,000 people had signed up to participate in the mPower app. 2,000 people would represent more than the largest number of research participants in the clinical trial ever in Parkinson's Disease. So this was clearly a sign that they had tapped into something, and unmet need. A thirst that individuals wanted to participate in reasearch studies, and to do so on their terms. So, I think opening a new chapter on the way we conduct clinical research. A chapter that will likely not close soon, and has many more pages to be written. We know that people want to participate in clinical trials. That people with cancer want to advance research, they want to advance knowledge. But only like 2 or 3% of individuals with cancer for example, participate in clinical trials. Now, we enable you know 90 plus percent of the population that has a smartphone to participate in research studies on their terms, without them ever having to come in to a research study. It's not quite a clinical trial, but it's a research study. We think, five applications for initially release, one for asthma, one for breast cancer, one for cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and Parkinson's disease. There are probably hundreds of applications now, everything from autism to LGBTQ community, to prostate cancer, to congestive heart failure. So, this just opens a new way of engaging people in research studies. And I think, it's only a matter of time before these new ways of conducting research studies will translate into new ways of conducting clinical trials. It was pretty cool, that you're there, and you're interacting with now the Chief Operating Officer of Apple. And for the whole community, and people who are new to clinical research to find out that they've tapped into something that was a need that had been not well expressed. And a means by which people could engage in research in new ways. It was exciting for all of us. Well I think, we're now at the point where we can use these smartphones to facilitate diagnosis of Parkinson's disease. So can you press a button on your phone, do a series of tasks? You know, a voice recording saying doing a tapping task, and walking 20 feet. And get the sense of whether you're at high risk for having Parkinson's disease, or at low risk for Parkinson's disease. In United States, it may not seem like a very big deal, but in China, there's over two million people with Parkinson's disease, and only 50 to a hundred Parkinson's disease specialist. So can you a press the button, and determine whether you're likely to have Parkinson's disease? And then, if you find out you're high risk for having Parkinson's disease. Can you press that exact same button, or the button next to it, and be connected to a connection? We think that we carry these tools around with us, then 90% of the world's population over age of six will have by 2020. And that indeed, we'll be able to press buttons, and help to determine whether we have a given condition. And second, and perhaps more importantly, be able to press a button to help be connected to care, which with the history of human kind has never been possible. [MUSIC]
