® KeySense is a registered trademark of Parkinson’s Foundation (Australia)
© Copyright 2023 Parkinson’s Foundation (Australia)
Parkinson’s FOUNDATION
(AUSTRALIA)
Welcome
Diagnosing Early Parkinson’s Disease
Do you suspect that you or a loved one
may have Parkinson’s Disease?
It’s the second-most common neuro-
degenerative disease in the over-60’s, but
people may have it for up to a decade
before it is diagnosed.
KeySense
®
provides a simple, free
screening test that you can do on your own
computer in just a few minutes, and it’s
been used by tens of thousands of people.
The Problem
The problem with Parkinson’s (PD) is that the
early symptoms are often subtle, varied and
ill-defined. And even though most people
think that hand tremor is one indicator, that’s
often not so - there is more than one type of
tremor, and the most common type is
completely unrelated to Parkinson’s Disease!
Until now there has not
been any definitive diag-
nostic test for the disease,
and diagnosis has relied
on close observation of
your movement features,
in conjunction with a
range of other potential
indicators.
Unfortunately first-line
medical practitioners such
as GP’s don’t have the
specialized training and have a quite high
misdiagnosis rate of PD - they don’t pick it up
in more than 25% of cases and so it can
continue undiagnosed for many years.
This isn’t a criticism of GP’s at all - early diag-
nosis relies on having extensive
specialized experience of PD. Neurologists
have that expertise, but you need to be
referred to them first. This often becomes a
real Catch-22 situation in practice.
But why is getting an assessment impor-
tant? You are probably visiting this website
because you (or a family member) are
concerned - it may be a niggling worry
about having some of the symptoms of
Parkinson’s or you may have already
discussed things with a medical practi-
tioner. In any event, being able to establish
with more certainty whether or not you
may have the disease will itself take away
some of the stress (and potentially get you
started on medication to reduce the effects
of the disease).
The KeySense Solution
Since Parkinson’s is primarily a disease
which affects movement, the KeySense
approach is to assess the movement of
your hands and fingers, which is where
typing comes into the equation.
As you type, it is possible for us to analyze
your keystrokes down to millisecond accu-
racy, and use a suite of AI techniques to
assess the cadence and rhythm of your
typing. In someone with early
Parkinson’s, the finger movement
patterns are different to those of
people without the disease.
KeySense is based on proven science and
involved research studies with many thou-
sands of typing samples. The methodology
has been scientifically peer reviewed and
the results have been extensively validated.
See what others say about KeySense here
Do I need to be a good typist to do
the assessment?
Not at all. The KeySense techniques don’t
care about how quickly you type or how
many mistakes you make. Even slow, two-
finger typing is fine - we are mainly
assessing the pattern of finger rhythms.
We will ask you to transcribe a passage of
text, then you will have the KeySense
results immediately.
The results are shown as scores across
multiple movement attributes - it is not a
pass/fail assessment or a diagnosis, but
shows how you compare to others. Have a
look at a sample report here
GET STARTED NOW
See whether the way you type
shows any indications of early
Parkinson’s Disease. Less than a
page is needed for immediate
analysis, based on characteristics
and rhythms in your typing.
We don’t ask you for any personal
details, so you remain completely
anonymous.
Disclaimer: KeySense is just an assessment tool. It does not provide a medical diagnosis and
the results can not be used as such. Only a medical practitioner can establish whether or
not you actually have Parkinson’s Disease.