Leading Liverpool cash plan provider Medicash has funded state-of-the-art equipment that will help clinicians at The Walton Centre to study the falls risk and gait analysis of patients with Parkinson’s Disease.
The equipment will give The Walton Centre’s clinicians a quick and reliable way of calculating the falls risk for patients with Parkinson’s before a fall occurs, which in turn allows for appropriate referral for intervention. Clinicians will also be able to measure a patient’s responsiveness to treatment, as well as improving patient selection for surgery.
In addition, the new technology will provide clinicians with data for further research projects in the field, which could have a wide-reaching impact on Parkinson’s Disease research in the UK.
Medicash has donated £3,000 enabling The Walton Centre to purchase the ‘Kinesis QTUG’ equipment. The project recently won an innovation award at a ‘rehabilitation hackathon’ event held at The Walton Centre.
Physiotherapist in Neurosurgery, James Somerset of The Walton Centre said: “The donation from Medicash means that whereas before clinicians would rely on using their judgement with patients’ falls risk and gait, we now have the data to enable us to make quick, accurate decisions and referrals for intervention.”
Medicash Chief Executive, Sue Weir said: “We are delighted to be able to donate the funds necessary for The Walton Centre to purchase this equipment which we hope will have a huge impact on Parkinson’s Disease treatment both now and in the future.”
The Medicash Charitable Trust has donated over £1m to health-related charities over the last 10 years, and recently announced a further £720,000 was being made available to support health and wellbeing projects.