Andre Machado, MD, PhD: Multidisciplinary Treatment in Movement Disorders

“We deliberately do not have a rigid algorithm on how to get a patient with a given symptom to have a given procedure—we like to tailor it. We tailor the decision-making for DBS, focused ultrasound, or medical treatment.”

For patients with movement disorders such as essential tremor, there are fortunately a number of options for treatment. They can range from medications to procedures such as focused ultrasound or deep brain stimulation (DBS).

Clinicians such as Andre Machado, MD, PhD, Institute Chair, Neurological Institute, Cleveland Clinic, know that the best approach to this process is a multidisciplinary one. As has been the trend across medicine, a group of physicians and providers come together to make informed decisions based on a number of factors—not just a rigid algorithm that reads out decision A based on symptom B, and so on.

In a conversation with NeurologyLive, Machado provided his insight into this process at Cleveland Clinic, and spoke to how this multidisciplinary, all-encompassing approach can provide a more complex and more effective relationship with the patient and referring neurologist. This, in turn, adds an amount of value to the care that they provide.