I am sure that many of you will run across this information today. Apparently, researchers have determined a more scientific means of measuring disease severity. Certain aspects of our speech closely correlate to assessment on the UPDRS, and it seems pretty accurate. From the abstract on Interface
We apply a wide range of known speech signal processing algorithms to a large database (approx. 6000 recordings from 42 PD patients, recruited to a six-month, multi-centre trial) and propose a number of novel, nonlinear signal processing algorithms which reveal pathological characteristics in PD more accurately than existing approaches.
Interested to see the results....