In this study, the researchers developed and tested a protocol to enable remote objective assessments of movement signals in individuals with Parkinson's disease (PD). 35 raters who completed training and certification in the use of the Movement Disorder Society Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale (MDS-UPDRS) assessed a series of signals and their transforms that were generated in a prior project. The project collected accelerometry-based motion data from three participant cohorts (PD, multiple system atrophy, and healthy controls) who performed upper and lower extremity tasks. For this protocol, the signals and transforms (fast Fourier and continuous wavelet transforms) of five of the repetitive tasks (finger tapping, hand movements, pronation-supination movements of hands, toe tapping, and leg agility) were selected for expert evaluation.

The trained raters were presented with images of outputs and required to complete ratings for different participant cohorts (including test and retest sessions) and representations. Raters independently assessed images without knowing participants' demographics, clinical status, or laterality. A counterbalanced pseudo-randomized design controlled for the difficulty of the ratings by balancing the level of motor impairment across presentations.