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Building Your Parkinson’s Care Team: Key Roles and Responsibilities

A neurologist looking at brain scans, symbolizing expertise in neurological conditions and treatment.A recent post on the blog of the National Parkinson’s Foundation asks a provocative question:

Will involving a neurologist in the care of a Parkinson’s disease patient makes a difference in outcome? 

In her post on the NPF blog entitled “The Case for All Parkinson’s Disease Patients to be Co-managed by a Primary Care-Neurologist Team,” Tennessee-based Cathy Whitlock calls attention to an interesting research paper that was published this summer in Neurology—the official journal of the American Academy of Neurology (AAN).

The August 30, 2011 Neurology paper, “Neurologist care in Parkinson disease: A utilization, outcomes, and survival study,” was authored by Allison Wright Willis, MD (Assistant Professor of Neurology at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis) and her colleagues M. Shootman, B.A. Evanoff, J.S. Perlmutter, & B.A. Racette.

The paper and Cathy’s blog post are worth reading as they address the perennial question asked by PD patients: “What can I do to be sure I am getting the best possible treatment for my Parkinson’s disease,” with a response grounded in medical research to “make sure you are co-managed by both a neurologist and a primary care physician.”

While we think it’s important to also have a first-rate physical therapist with a knowledge of PD exercise therapies on a care team, this is a thought provoking question. Read Cathy’s article for more…

What do you think?