SALISBURY, Md. - You may not be able to tell by looking at him, but Art Cooley knows Parkinson's all too well. He tells WMDT "in 2008/2009 I began to exhibit symptoms and after going to the doctor up to Johns Hopkins resources, they confirmed that I had Parkinson's disease." Considered a neurological disorder, Parkinson's can be treated by neurologists, but it can take a doctor trained as a movement specialist to provide a proper diagnosis. A recent study estimates as many as 7,000 people are living with this disease on Delmarva, but there aren't any movement specialists on the peninsula. This has brought the Lower Shore Parkinson's Support Group, the MAC center, and Johns Hopkins to work together to provide a new way to help patients diagnose the debilitating disease. Dr. Renee Fredericksen is the Special Projects Director for MAC Inc. in Salisbury. There, she runs the Caregiver Resource Center where a new Telemedicine program will start mid February. "Telemedicine enables us to use telephone lines and computer access to bring doctors with specialties and other specialist in the world right into your home," says Fredericksen. While the consultations aren't available in the home just yet, Fredericksen says that … Continue reading →

Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. (NYSE: TEVA; TASE: TEVA) today announced that it has enrolled the first patient in the Phase IV clinical trial of Azilect. The study will evaluate the cognitive function in adults with mild cognitive impairment in Parkinson's disease. The study will evaluate the effect of Azilect on cognitive function in adults with mild cognitive impairment in Parkinson's, as assessed by the Scales for Outcomes of Parkinson's Disease-Cognition after 24 weeks of treatment. The study includes 170 patients at 30 sites in the US. Cognitive impairment in Parkinson's disease is a major cause of disability and increased care partner burden, said Dr. Robert A. Hauser, director of the Parkinson's Disease & Movement Disorders Center at the University of South Florida, the co-primary investigator of the study. As currently there are no available treatments for cognitive impairment in Parkinson's disease, any therapy that may demonstrate benefit would be welcomed for this significant unmet need." Teva chief scientific officer and president Global R&D Dr. Michael Hayden said, Mild cognitive impairment in Parkinson's disease is common in non-demented Parkinson's patients and is associated with increasing age, disease duration and disease severity." Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - http://www.globes-online.com - … Continue reading →

LOS ANGELES, Feb. 5, 2013 /PRNewswire/ --One of the first known surgeons to offer Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) as an outpatient treatment, Christopher Duma, MD, FACS, is bringing a new option and hope to the estimated 60,000 Americans diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease every year. The pioneering brain surgeon, who has successfully controlled tremors in thousands of movement disorder patients, is now performing his minimally invasive implantations at DISC Surgery Center at Newport Beach. Patients can literally walk in, have the surgery and be home in time for dinner, with their quality of life improved exponentially. DISC's outpatient setting also means individualized attention, fewer complications and a dramatically reduced risk of infection. With a marked improvement in 90% of cases, DBS is delivered by an implant that conducts a fine electrical impulse to particular parts of the brain. Wires are implanted in the brain and are connected to a device under the skin near the collar bone that regulates a continuous current. Despite being called 'stimulation' DBS actually shuts down areas of the brain that are causing the symptoms of Parkinson's Disease. Unlike medications that tend to have negative side effects over time, DBS has a positive record for minimal side … Continue reading →

In July 2009, during one of their daily dog walks, Libbe Erickson noticed that her husband, Kim, was dragging his feet. A year later, Kim, a pilot for Delta Airlines, was on a layover in Honolulu. He got up one morning, went into the bathroom of his hotel and started shaving. He looked into the mirror and saw that his right hand was shaking. "It wasn't from being tired or from working out," Kim Erickson said. "I had just woken up; I was fairly rested." When he got home, Erickson went to see a neurologist in Stillwater. The diagnosis: Parkinson's disease, a disorder of the brain that leads to tremors as well as trouble with walking, movement and coordination. There is no known cure, but the Ericksons, who live in Grant, are working to change that. The couple became research advocates for the Parkinson's Disease Foundation and are working to get other Parkinson's patients involved in studies that could lead to new drugs. "The only way we're going to make advances is if people living with Parkinson's participate in research studies," Kim Erickson said. "The real hindrance with Parkinson's research right now is the number of study participants is so … Continue reading →