Responding to the urgent need for additional specialists to treat the growing prevalence of people with Parkinson’s disease (PD), the International Parkinson and Movement Disorder Society hosted the fifth annual “Pan American Section (MDS-PAS) Movement Disorders School for Neurology Residents” on October 10, 2020.

Sponsored by the Edmond J. Safra Foundation and The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research (MJFF), the 1-day virtual course had 344 registered participants — including neurology residents, medical students, nurse practitioners and other health care professionals from across the Americas — who were provided educational lectures, panel discussions, live patient examinations and video case studies on Parkinson’s and other movement disorders, a media release from MJFF explains.

Great Need for Specialists

“The need for specialists with a solid understanding of Parkinson’s has never been greater. The Foundation is focused on creating opportunities like the Movement Disorders School to provide education and foster professional curiosity, and to ultimately inspire the next generation to pursue career paths caring for the growing Parkinson’s population.”

— Rachel Dolhun, MD, MDS-PAS Movement Disorder School for Neurology Residents course organizer, fellowship-trained MDS, and MJFF’s vice president of medical communications

Led by internationally recognized experts, the annual Movement Disorders School provides coursework on care, research and drug development in PD and other movement disorders and encourages consideration of careers in this field. With leadership from nine distinguished faculty clinicians from academic institutions across the United States, the 2020 course was co-directed by Steven J. Frucht, MD, director of movement disorders at NYU Langone and Tanya Simuni, MD, professor of neurology and head of the division of movement disorders at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.

This year’s program included an inaugural lecture on health care disparities provided by Nabila Dahodwala, MD, assistant professor of neurology at the University of Pennsylvania. Since 2016, the course has attracted 678 neurology residents and other interested health care providers from North, Central, South America and the Caribbean, the release continues.

[Source(s): The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research, PR Newswire]


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