Q&A with Olusoji Ogunbode
"The objective is to create culturally sensitive, impactful solutions that enhance healthcare quality, improve patient outcomes, and ultimately contribute to global health equity by making essential medical technology widely accessible."
Olusoji Ogunbode
PhD Candidate, Biomedical Engineering
What project are you working on?
My research focuses on developing a cost-effective, user-friendly wearable device to monitor Parkinson’s disease symptoms such as tremors, slowness of movement, freezing episodes, at home and during daily activities. Moreover, guided by the Frugal Innovation 4A Framework (Affordability, Accessibility, Availability, Appropriateness) and grounded in EDIDI principles (Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, Decolonization, Indigeneity), this work incorporates insights from users (people with Parkinson's disease, their caregivers and clinicians) in Canada and Nigeria. For this reason, the objective is to create culturally sensitive, impactful solutions that enhance healthcare quality, improve patient outcomes, and ultimately contribute to global health equity by making essential medical technology widely accessible.
What problem(s) are you solving?
My research addresses critical gaps in continuous, objective, and accessible monitoring of Parkinson’s symptoms. Traditional clinical evaluations are infrequent; furthermore, they rely heavily on subjective patient reports and often fail to capture daily symptom fluctuations. In addition, existing wearable technologies are frequently expensive and impractical for regular use, limiting their effectiveness in resource-constrained settings. Therefore, by developing a practical, real-time monitoring device, my research aims to overcome these challenges, promoting timely, personalized care, reducing healthcare costs, and achieving measurable improvements in symptom management and patient quality of life globally.
What brought you to this research?
Motivated by witnessing healthcare disparities faced by people with Parkinson’s disease, particularly in underserved communities, my background in medical device design and healthcare experience in Canada and Nigeria inspired this research. Moreover, recognizing the need for culturally informed and contextually relevant biomedical solutions, I am driven by the opportunity to use engineering for social impact. For this reason, my goal is to empower people with Parkinson's disease, support caregivers, clinicians and advance health equity through inclusive, accessible innovations. Potential future developments include scaling the device for broader applications and integrating advanced analytics to enhance patient outcomes worldwide.
