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Parkinson's and Movement Disorders Newsletter - Spring 2019
A quarterly newsletter from the Duke Department of Neurology
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 Chief's Corner - Renovations and listening tour
Many of you may have visited us recently while the clinic building went through renovations. Great news – it’s all done! Now, inside the PD and Movement Disorders division, we are undergoing our own “renovation” process by rethinking how we provide care and identifying unmet needs.To do this best, WE NEED YOU! Our first step is to take a “Listening Tour” to hear what you care about most. We hope that you will participate in our brief three-question survey below which will help us understand our strengths, know what to improve, and think about the future.
Division Chief Nicole Calakos, MD, PhD
 Take our "Top Three" clinic survey here.
We need your help to better assess our current strengths in providing care and decide our priorities for the future. We ask you to choose 3 "Top Threes" - what we already do best, the reasons you choose to get your care here, and what you'd like us to work on more. Finally, for “extra credit," we ask if you would like to join in this effort by becoming part of our new Patient-Family Advisory & Action Committee. Please help us by taking our "Top Three" survey here.
 Note from our PD Center of Excellence coordinator
While Parkinson’s disease is something that we think about all year long, April--Parkinson's disease awareness month--is an important time to help engage with and educate the broader community about the impact of Parkinson’s disease and the urgency to work harder for a cure. Dr. Calakos and I recently attended the Parkinson’s Foundation annual leadership conference in Phoenix, where leaders from around the world shared insights on how to improve the everyday experiences of those living with Parkinson’s disease. Read more.
 Studying TMS as a possible therapy for dystonia
Noreen Bukhari-Parlakturk, MD, PhD, assistant professor of Neurology at Duke, is developing a new disease-modifying therapy for dystonia, a major unmet clinical need. Dystonia is a condition that causes involuntary and abnormal postures, pain and tremors that can occur in any body part. In Parkinson’s disease patients, it often presents as a symptom such as toe curling and is one of the top ten reported disabilities. Read more.
 Faculty Spotlight: Sneha Mantri, MD
The work of Sneha Mantri, MD, combines medical and literary elements self into a complementary whole. For this issue's “Faculty Spotlight” interview, Mantri talks to us about her work treating patients with Parkinson’s disease and movement disorders as well as designing education opportunities based on narrative medicine. Mantri also talks about the history-based novel she’s currently working on, and offers some advice for other busy individuals to incorporate writing into their daily routine. Read more
 Lifestyle Matters - Cynthia Dunn, PA-C
As you all know, April is Parkinson’s Awareness Month. But raising awareness about Parkinson’s shouldn’t be restricted to just one month out of a whole year. There are approximately 10 million people living with Parkinson’s worldwide. That’s 10 million opportunities to spread education about this disease to others whose lives have not been touched by a person with PD. Ten million opportunities to dispel the common myths about PD as the more people know, the fewer misconceptions they have. Ten million opportunities to encourage others to join the fight against PD. Read more.
 Featured clinical trial: Troriluzole (spinocerebellar ataxia)
The Movement Disorders Center offers clinical trials to people with or at risk for Huntington’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, essential tremor, dystonia and other movement disorders. By mid-summer we will be offering enrollment into a study for individuals with spinocerebellar ataxia (ages 18-75). The study will offer 48 weeks of Troriluzole vs placebo followed by 48 weeks of Troriluzole. For more information, contact Karen White-Tong at Karen.white@duke.edu, or 919-668-2905. Read more.
 Coming events: Support groups for PD and HD, Loud and Proud, and more
A variety of events are available for patients with Parkinson's or Huntington's disease, as well as their care partners, including Parkinson's and Huntington's support groups as well as "Loud and Proud," a monthly speech and communication group for Parkinson's disease led by the Department of Speech Pathology and Audiology. Read more about these and other coming events here.
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