Parkinson’s Central app review: help for those with Parkinson’s Disease

Introduction

Parkinson’s Central by National Parkinson Foundation, Inc. is an app meant to bring information to those living with Parkinson’s Disease, or to those who are living with someone with PD. It is designed to answer any questions you may have regarding the disease, its treatment, and more.

What

Parkinson’s Disease affects the motor system and comes as a result of the loss of those brain cells that produce dopamine. People with PD can suffer from stiffness in the limbs, rigidity, tremor, impaired balance, and brandykinesia. People with a more advanced stage of Parkinson’s may have trouble carrying out simple tasks, talking, and walking. I’m not sure that someone with advanced PD would be able to use this app (considering fine motor control goes out the window), but people who are still able to operate an iPhone or iPad would have no trouble.

The app itself is very easy to use. It’s full of information for patients and caregivers, and has nine brightly colored icons on the home page to help you navigate. There are no tiny tabs to press, and each category’s icon has a text description underneath. Some people might have trouble with the buttons; I imagine that some users might wish for bigger buttons.

 

Options and Features

You can choose from About PD, Symptoms, Treatment, Doctor Visits, Living Well, Research, Index, About NPF, and Near Me for navigation. Along the very bottom of the page you’ll see six tabs: one each for Facebook, Twitter, email, phone, and YouTube. These will help you connect with the National Parkinson Foundation with your choice of platform.

I clicked on the YouTube tab to see what kind of videos were available and once I clicked Home to try to go back to the main part of the app it took quite a while to load. Other parts of the app are somewhat slow to load as well; not terribly slow, but slower than you would expect.

 

Pros and Cons

Pros

• Easy to navigate
• Colorful buttons
• No tiny tabs to press
• Lots of ways to follow, like, or contact the National Parkinson Foundation
• Tons of useful information for PD patients and their caregivers

 

Cons

• People with advanced PD wouldn’t be able to use it
• Some users might wish for larger buttons
• Kind of slow 

 

Final Verdict

Overall I think this is a really valuable resource for people with Parkinson’s, their caregivers, and their family members. The app is simple to navigate, is chock-full of fantastic information, and it’s free! If you or someone you love has Parkinson’s Disease, you should definitely check out this app.