NeuroDynamics Medical Receives Approval for World’s First Natural-Image AI-Assisted Diagnostic Device for Parkinson’s Assessment

Recently, the Motion Disorder Assessment System (MoDAS), an auxiliary assessment software for diagnosing and evaluating motor dysfunction in conditions such as Parkinson’s syndrome, developed by Ningdong Medical (Ningdong Wansheng Medical Technology (Wuhan) Co., Ltd.), has received market approval from the National Medical Products Administration. As the world’s first medical device for auxiliary assessment of motor dysfunction based on artificial intelligence technology for natural images, this milestone marks the formal entry of global AI medical device innovation into the era of natural image-assisted diagnosis and treatment.

MoDAS is built on computer vision-based artificial intelligence technology. It leverages the most common smart mobile devices in daily life to capture patient image data at any time. By employing deep learning, it rapidly provides physicians with precise, objective, and quantifiable clinical diagnostic evidence, thereby alleviating the burdensome and time-consuming manual observation and judgment tasks in clinical practice. Additionally, it offers more refined and quantitative patient assessments, significantly enhancing the efficiency of diagnosis and treatment for movement disorders, including Parkinson’s disease. Compared with other traditional devices, MoDAS adopts a purely visual image analysis approach for assessment, effectively avoiding physical interference with human movement caused by hardware components. This eliminates the time consumption associated with wearing sensors and sterilization procedures, thereby reducing the difficulty and complexity of deployment in medical institutions and primary healthcare settings.

In a multicenter clinical study involving patients with Parkinson’s disease, led by Shanghai Changhai Hospital and jointly conducted with the First Medical Center of the Chinese PLA General Hospital, Xinhua Hospital Affiliated to Shanghai Jiao Tong University, and Guangzhou Medical University Brain Hospital, the analytical results generated by MoDAS demonstrated high concordance with those determined by clinicians using existing gold-standard methods. Furthermore, no adverse events were observed among the study participants, indicating excellent safety and efficacy in clinical application. Multiple experts involved in the study noted that MoDAS aligns closely with current clinical workflows; its mobile-enabled design allows for on-demand access to graphical, objective data, thereby enhancing the efficiency and quality of clinical assessments.

During the product development and clinical validation processes, Ningdong Medical received academic and practical guidance and support from numerous prominent domestic and international medical institutions. In 2022, recommended by the Hubei Provincial Department of Economy and Information Technology and the Drug Administration, Ningdong Medical was successfully selected as a high-potential entity to participate in the “AI Medical Device Innovation Task Force” jointly organized by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) and the National Medical Products Administration (NMPA), outperforming more than a thousand applicants. Meanwhile, MoDAS also received the VB-Find Award for the Top 100 Most Innovative Healthcare Technology Products of 2022 in the category of Best Digital and Information Technology Product.

Diagnosis and Severity Grading of Movement Disorders: A Case Study of Parkinson’s DiseaseThe diagnosis and severity grading of movement disorders, exemplified by Parkinson’s disease, primarily rely on clinicians’ in-person observational assessments and analysis based on a series of standardized rating scales. With the accelerating aging of populations in many major countries worldwide, the limitations of traditional approaches—namely, their substantial consumption of scarce physician resources and low diagnostic and therapeutic efficiency—have become increasingly prominent. Leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) to assist in diagnosis and treatment is currently a key focus for numerous companies and research institutions globally. The theoretical foundations and practical efficacy of AI have already been well demonstrated in fields such as pathological analysis and surgical planning. In the realm of movement disorders, AI technologies based on computer vision offer distinct advantages and have emerged as a focal point for innovative breakthroughs in neurology worldwide.

Dr. Zhou Dong, Chief Medical Officer at Ningdong Medical, stated, “Movement disorders may be among the earliest neurological diseases identified and studied in humans; however, symptom assessment has long relied on manual observation by neurologists. The inefficiency and low granularity of such assessments have posed a major obstacle to advances in disease diagnosis and treatment as well as drug therapy development. My team and I have long been committed to providing neurologists with a convenient and user-friendly tool for the objective quantification of motor symptoms—akin to how X-ray machines serve surgeons—enabling them to make more precise and efficient diagnostic and therapeutic decisions.”

“Since our establishment in 2018, we have actively invested in the niche field of AI-assisted therapy based on computer vision, accumulating numerous significant technological advancements. After countless iterations and optimizations, we ultimately developed MoDAS, which achieves a high level of consistency with the judgments of human experts. Gaining recognition and approval from medical industry experts and regulatory authorities has enabled our AI models to be translated into tangible productivity, truly beginning to work side by side with humans,” said Fu Sichao, Head of the Artificial Intelligence Research Institute at Ningdong Medical.

“After more than 50 years of development, information technology has demonstrated its power and value to all of humanity. Integrating these technologies into the diagnosis and treatment of movement disorders through MoDAS represents a solid major step forward for Ningdong Medical, as well as a small step within the broader wave of ‘Digital New Medicine,’” said Dong Boya, Founder and CEO of Ningdong Medical. “We are committed to working alongside physicians in China and around the world, advancing steadily on this path toward the future, and contributing our efforts to a healthier and better tomorrow.”