Quick start

Opening the app

Launch Wyss DBS Annotator as you would any other app on the device. The home screen offers three entries, in two groups: Record is for a session happening now; Read is for files that already exist.

Home screen with three entries grouped under Record and Read

Entry

Use it when

Complete workflow

You are running a programming session: stimulation parameters, electrode contacts, scale ratings and notes.

Annotations only

You only want timestamped notes, with no stimulation data.

Reports and datasets

You have one or more TSVs and want reports, a combined table or a BIDS dataset, with no authoring.

The first two create data. The last only reads it, so it is safe to open against a file you care about.

New to the vocabulary (block, baseline, clinical and session scales, BIDS)? See Key terms.

The theme and text-size controls in the top bar are on every screen; see Home.

Your first session

The shortest useful path through Complete workflow:

  1. File. Enter the patient ID and run number, then choose where to save. The app builds the BIDS filename for you and writes the file immediately, so there is somewhere for entries to land from the first insert onward.

  2. Initial configuration. Record the state the patient arrived in: the electrode model, the settings currently programmed, and the baseline clinical scores. Insert it. This block is marked as the baseline and is excluded from “configurations tested” later.

  3. Session scales configuration. Name the scales you will rate at every configuration, with their range. Disease presets fill this in with a tap.

  4. Recording. For each configuration: set the parameters, select contacts on the lead diagram, rate the scales, add any note, and insert. Repeat.

Things worth knowing early

Every insert is saved immediately. There is no separate save step. Each entry is written to your file and to a working copy inside the app, so a crash or a closed window loses nothing: the next time you open the workflow, the app offers the unfinished session back.

Notes belong to a block. They are attached to the configuration that was active when you typed them, not to the session as a whole, which is what makes it possible afterwards to say which setting caused the paraesthesia.

Scale targets are yours to set. If you want the app to highlight the best-scoring configurations, you must first say what “better” means for each scale: lower, higher, or closest to a value. Until you do, no configuration is ranked. This is deliberate; see What the reports do not say.

Text size and theme are adjustable from the top bar of every screen.

Getting the report

From the Recording step choose Export and pick PDF or Word. For a file recorded earlier, upload it in Reports and datasets and choose Single session report. You will be asked which sections to include and can set the scale targets at that point. See Reports.