Essential Tremor & Parkinson's Disease

The aim of the Genetic and Digital Diagnosis of Essential Tremor and Parkinson’s Disease (GADGET-PD) trial is to determine whether essential tremor (ET), a benign tremor disorder, and Parkinson’s Disease (PD), a neurodegenerative disorder, can be differentiated via combined genetic testing and monitoring of tremors with a wristwatch-like accelerometer device.

At early stages of Parkinson’s disease onset, clinical signs become clearer but an irreversible loss of a specific type of brain cell occurs. Thus, distinguishing PD from ET early may help prioritize appropriate treatment for patients with PD, and potentially improve patient outcomes. We hypothesize that a combination of prior genetic risk and current disease symptomology can synergize for accurate and early discrimination of PD from ET, and ultimately inform a cost-effective approach to movement disorder diagnosis.