Researchers from Britain and U.S. have found that severity of Parkinson's disease symptoms could be kept on check through analysis of speech patterns of patients.

They examined almost 6,000 speech recordings from 42 patients and created algorithms using the data. Results confirmed the algorithms were actually close to assessments made by doctors.

"Currently, monitoring requires frequent visits to hospital where people with Parkinson's are physically examined by expert clinicians in order to assess their symptom severity, putting a strain on both patients and hospital resources," said Max Little of Britain's Oxford University, who worked on the study.

This technique researchers believed could save hospitals and doctors some time and could reduce their burden too.

Little noted that the study has proved the link between speech impairment and severity of the disease symptoms.

"This sort of remote monitoring -- or 'telemonitoring' -- of people's health is particularly important for people with Parkinson's who may find it difficult to make frequent hospital visits," he said.

"The hope is that our research could pave the way for very large clinical studies of new treatments for Parkinson's where the sort of frequent monitoring required would not otherwise be affordable."