Sophia Otálora Gonzalez participated in Heriot-Watt University’s inaugural Health and Care Innovation Conference for Early Career Researchers, an event designed to showcase emerging research across health and care and encourage collaboration between postgraduate researchers, early-career researchers, staff, and industry partners.

Monitoring Parkinson’s Disease Using Wearable Sensors

Sophia presented her research titled Monitoring the Effects of Medication in Parkinson’s Disease Using Wearable Sensors. The work explores how wearable sensors can be used to capture movement patterns during daily activities and support the monitoring of medication-related changes in people with Parkinson’s disease.

Her presentation included preliminary activity-recognition results across activities such as putting on a jacket, taking medication, tying shoelaces, and wearing trousers. The results showed an accuracy and F1-score of 81%, with sensor contribution analysis highlighting the importance of body-worn sensors including the left thigh, right foot, lower back, upper chest, and wrist sensors.

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About the Health and Care Innovation Conference

Heriot-Watt’s inaugural Health and Care Innovation Conference for Early Career Researchers was held on 26 March 2025. The event brought together postgraduate researchers, early-career researchers, staff, keynote speakers, and industry partners to share innovative research addressing major challenges in health and care.

The conference provided an important platform for early-career researchers to present their work, build collaborations, and discuss how academic research can be translated into real-world impact.