My Moves Matter Panel Review
Review updated:
A simple self-care companion app with innovative multimedia journal features and period tracking but can be difficult to navigate around and setting up medication records can be challenging.
Highs
- Developed by someone living with Parkinson’s.
- Journal feature allows you to log activities and symptoms using multiple methods including text, video and voice memo.
- Can track menstrual cycle alongside Parkinson’s symptoms.
- Free and available on all Apple and Android smartphones.
Lows
- Medication set up can be challenging.
- It can be hard to use the scrolling selectors for medication and symptom tracking.
- Offers limited insights.
Meet the review panel
The 6 people in our review panel were asked to test out the My Moves Matter app for 6 weeks before sharing their feedback with us.
Symptoms: Our reviewers are living with a wide range of Parkinson’s symptoms, including dyskinesia (involuntary muscle movement), tremor, gait issues (problems with walking), pain, loss of balance, loss of coordination, and slowness of movement.
Tech confidence rating: Ranges from ‘somewhat confident’ to ‘very confident’.
Location: The 6 reviewers are located in: Aylesbury, Basingstoke, Birmingham, Camberley, Darlington and Skelmorlie.
Gender
- Women: 6
Age range
Years since diagnosis
Background
My Moves Matter is a self-care companion app designed to help people living with Parkinson’s take control of their health.
The app is suitable for both men and women to use but it particularly focuses on the health and wellbeing of women. It is the only digital app in the world that tracks Parkinson’s symptoms across the menstrual cycle.
My Moves Matter was developed by Richelle Flanagan after she and her team won the DayOne Health Hack 2021 with their idea to create an app that could track the fluctuation of Parkinson’s symptoms during the menstrual cycle with the help of some sort of technology.
Richelle first noticed her own Parkinson’s symptoms when she was 3 months pregnant with her daughter. She told the Tech Guide that her own experiences were what inspired her to create the app. “I thought about the impact of hormones worsening my symptoms and that of many other women who experience the same phenomenon and this experience being dismissed as being in our heads.”
In 2022, Richelle co-authored a research paper titled: ‘Unmet Needs of Women Living with Parkinson’s Disease: Gaps and Controversiesopens in new tab.’ This paper covered multiple areas of women’s health needs and called for the management of Parkinson’s to be “customised to include the unique stages of women’s lives, including menstrual cycles, pregnancy, perimenopause, menopause, and postmenopause.”
Based in Ireland, Richelle has been a dietician for more than 20 years and she hopes to develop My Moves Matter in the future to include personalised feedback and personalised medical nutrition therapy services. She told us: “I believe diet and nutrition can make a big difference to how well we live with Parkinson’s and research has indicated it may even help to slow progression.”
Features
Journaling
The app includes a versatile journal feature to allow a more detailed record of how you are feeling day-to-day and your daily activities. You can add text, voice memo and video entries, which may make it easier to document your experiences even at times where it’s difficult to tap and type.
The option to journal was appreciated by 5 out of 6 reviewers. (The sixth reviewer prefers to use a notebook and pen to journal.)
I really liked that I could do video or record my voice when I was too tired or drained to type but still wanted to record my thoughts and feelings.
“I really liked that I could do video or record my voice when I was too tired or drained to type but still wanted to record my thoughts and feelings,” said an enthusiastic reviewer.
Another reviewer who enjoyed using the feature said: “I used it to note details of exercise, to record how I felt or if there was a reason for taking medication early or late. I think it added detail and nuance.” However they did find it “a bit time consuming to use because of having to note each thing separately.”
2 reviewers both liked that they could record more details of their symptoms and this would serve as useful reminders when next talking to their doctor.
Exercise Tracking
You can log your exercise activities on the app, recording the time and how long you worked out. However, the time ranges on offer only go from ‘less than 15 minutes’ to ’more than 30 minutes. 1 active reviewer did not like this small range in exercise duration. She said that she often works out for much longer. “Why is more ‘than 30 minutes’ the largest amount? I regularly do hour-long sessions, so this is discouraging.”
Unlike the Symptom Tracking and Medication Cabinet features, there is no pre-populated list of exercises to choose from. Instead, you can type a note to record what exercise you’ve done.
A reviewer who has issues with their fine motor control and sometimes struggles to type suggested: “It needs to have a drop down menu of exercise activities, or enable the user to enter the specific types of exercise that they do. That would be less time consuming than having to type a note.”
Period Tracking
My Moves Matter allows women to track their Parkinson’s symptoms alongside their period. The Period Tracker works very similarly to the Exercise Tracker - you can record the time and the severity of the flow, and you can also add a journal entry to further detail any other symptoms.
“I’m perimenopausal so my periods are not regular and my hormones fluctuate a lot,” said a reviewer in her 50s. “The Period Tracking section is not as good as other dedicated period tracking apps but it was good to see my hormonal symptoms and Parkinson’s symptoms together side by side.”
All our reviewers felt this unique feature was important but some were not sure how helpful it would be for getting support.
“I think this is a very important aspect for those
with YOPD [Young-onset Parkinson’s disease] to be able to identify how their menstrual cycle affects their medication and symptoms,” said a 62-year-old tester.
This sentiment was shared by another reviewer. She said “I can see the value of this for people who have periods, as hormonal fluctuations can affect many things and this would allow comparison of symptoms with the menstrual cycle to see whether there is a correlation.”
1 reviewer’s Parkinson’s diagnosis was followed shortly by the menopause. She struggled to find any support or information for women with Parkinson’s dealing with women’s specific issues and says “this is still the case”.
“I think tracking symptoms alongside tracking periods might be interesting but if there is no support and no one to discuss this with and no additional information I have to wonder what the point is other than data collection.”
As the app has been developed for both men and women at all stages of their life and Parkinson’s journey, a reviewer suggested that it should be possible to ‘hide’ the period tracking feature. She said, “It’s not relevant to me or any post-menopausal women and also men.”
Value
My Moves Matter is free to download on Apple and Android smartphones, and currently there are no subscriptions or in-app purchases required to use it.
A reviewer who said My Moves Matter has “a lot of potential”, said: “It might be useful for some and it costs nothing so there is no issue with trying it for free.”
Another agreed that for a free app, it was quite useful. She said: “I’m quite happy with it as a free app.”