Global Kinetics

Global Kinetics, rebranded as PKG Health, was founded in Melbourne, Australia, in 2007 by Professor Malcolm Horne and Dr. Rob Griffiths. The company was established to commercialize a novel technology developed at the Florey Institute of Neuroscience & Mental Health for the objective measurement of movement symptoms in neurological diseases. In October 2025, PKG Health was acquired by Empatica, a company specializing in AI-enabled wearables and digital biomarkers, to enhance Parkinson's disease monitoring.The company's core product is the Parkinson's KinetiGraph® (PKG®), an FDA-cleared and CE-marked medical device system. It consists of a wrist-worn sensor, the PKG Watch (now integrated with Empatica's EmbraceMini wearable), that patients wear for six to ten days to continuously and objectively record motor symptoms like bradykinesia (slowness), dyskinesia, and tremor in their home environment. The device also includes medication reminders to track compliance. Data is uploaded and processed by proprietary, clinically validated algorithms to generate a report for clinicians. This report provides objective data on how a patient's motor symptoms fluctuate throughout the day, helping to identify issues like wearing-off periods and the impact of medication.The business model targets neurologists, clinics, and pharmaceutical partners. For clinicians, the PKG system provides data-driven insights that can lead to changes in treatment decisions in over 30% of cases, facilitating more personalized patient care. The system is used in clinical trials by life science companies to measure the efficacy of new therapies for movement disorders. Following the acquisition by Empatica, the PKG algorithms are being integrated into the Empatica Health Monitoring Platform, aiming to combine PKG's validated measures with Empatica's scalable technology to create a comprehensive solution for tracking Parkinson's disease.Keywords: Parkinson's disease, movement disorders, neurology, digital biomarkers, wearable technology, continuous monitoring, motor symptom quantification, digital therapeutics, medtech, clinical decision support, bradykinesia, dyskinesia, tremor monitoring, patient monitoring, PKG system, Empatica, Malcolm Horne, Florey Institute, neurological assessment, remote patient monitoring, digital health, HealthTech, medical device