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Accepted for/Published in: Journal of Medical Internet Research

Date Submitted: Sep 10, 2026
Date Accepted: Sep 16, 2026

The final, peer-reviewed published version of this preprint can be found here:

Explicit Mechanistic Causal Analyses or Interventional Trials Are Required for Objective, Clinical, Voice-Based Parkinson Disease Characterization

Little M

Explicit Mechanistic Causal Analyses or Interventional Trials Are Required for Objective, Clinical, Voice-Based Parkinson Disease Characterization

J Med Internet Res 2026;28:e111711

DOI: 10.2196/111711

PMID: 42804162

Explicit mechanistic causal analysis or interventional trials are required for clinical voice-based, objective Parkinson’s disease characterisation

  • Max Little

ABSTRACT

For most with the movement disorder Parkinson’s, voice and speech are impaired at some point, which presents an opportunity to use digital recordings and sophisticated machine learning to assist objective clinical characterization of the condition. However, ad-hoc observational datasets typically contain spurious causal associations which escape a purely statistical analysis, so that causal inference, and ultimately, diagnostic clinical trials, are required to establish a direct mechanistic relationship between disease and algorithm predictions.


 Citation

Please cite as:

Little M

Explicit Mechanistic Causal Analyses or Interventional Trials Are Required for Objective, Clinical, Voice-Based Parkinson Disease Characterization

J Med Internet Res 2026;28:e111711

DOI: 10.2196/111711

PMID: 42804162

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