Here is some really cool news from this week's TED Global event:
6.3 million people worldwide have Parkinson’s, which means that many of us know someone suffering from this incurable disease. Although no biomarkers for the disease are currently known, Max Little’s research has shown that using voice recordings alone, it is possible to quantify the symptoms of the disease — with a 3-minute phone call.
To do this, Little and others are developing the Parkinson's Voice Initiative (PVI):
The PVI could enable several exciting advances in healthcare, including: reducing the need to visit a clinic to get symptom checkups, and a radically efficient and cost-effective way to recruit very large numbers of subjects into clinical trials for new treatments.
And this is where you come in. In just three minutes, you can make a low-cost, anonymous phone call in order to test this system that will soon be used to help Parkinson's patients.
That's it. No catch. No gimmick. Just pick up the phone on a coffee or lunch break today and follow the prompts. Then, you can feel great about helping to build something that will help so many.