Prof. Dr. med. Jochen Klucken is the vice head of the Department of Molecular Neurology at the University Hospital Erlangen, Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nürnberg, Germany. He is co-supervising the Movement Disorder Unit of the hospital and project leader of several translational research studies in wearable sensor technologies for patients with movement disorders. His main focus is Parkinson’s disease and he is conducting translational research studying novel mHealth technologies as diagnostic tools serving as objective biomarkers for the disease.
He graduated in 1996 in medicine at the University of Regensburg, Germany, worked for 4 years on his experimental medical thesis in the field of atherosclerosis at the Department of Clinical Chemistry at the University of Regensburg. From 2000 until 2007 he specialized in neurology and finished his habiliation thesis in neuroscience in 2009 on cell biology aspects of neurodegeneration in Parkinson’s disease. 2002-2005 he worked as a postdoctoral fellow at the Massachusetts Institute for Neurodegenerative Diseases, Harvard Medical School, Boston, USA on neurodegenerative processes in Parkinson’s disease.In 2004 he also started translational research projects in the field of medical technology (m/eHealth) applying sensor-based motion detection in movement disorders. From 2008 he is a principle investigator in the Department of Molecular Neurology (Head Prof. Dr. Juergen Winkler) focusing on cell biology aspects of neurodegeneration and sensor-based detection of neurodegeneration. He is developing novel gait-specific instrumented movement analysis concepts for Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis, osteoarthritis, sarkopenia and healthy well-being of the elderly. In 2015 he initiated the taskforce “Sensor-based movement analysis” from the German Parkinson’s Society and is member of the international task force Technology of the Movement Disorder Society. He was awarded the Bavarian innovation prize for “Health telematics” in 2015 and the Medical‐technical prize Erlangen for “Embedded gait analysis” in 2014. Since 2016 he is also involved in different political, industrial and research strategies in Bavaria (Digitalisierung Bayern) and in Germany (Verein Deutscher Ingenieure).
Vision
The developments in digital health will change the way we conduct healthcare. Innovative digital healthcare technology solutions will improve healthcare by more rapid, objective, efficient and transparent information for the patient and the healthcare team. Nowadays, digitalization is primarly focing on IT-based platform technologies providing secure and interoperable patient information communication abilities and data storage areas. Digital health management requires new standardised multidisciplinary healthcare processes providing patients with access to state-of-the-art healthcare, timely adjustment of therapy, and effective monitoring of symptoms and therapeutic effects, to improve their conditions and reduce healthcare costs.