NeurologyLive® Year in Review 2022: Most-Watched Movement Disorder Expert Interviews

The NeurologyLive^® team spoke with hundreds of experts across the field of neurology, culminating in hundreds of hours of interview clips posted over the course of this year. The staff spoke with neurologists, investigators, advanced practice providers, physical therapists, advocates, patients, pharmacists, and industry experts—anyone involved in the process of delivering clinical care.

These conversations were had with individuals from all over the world, both virtually and in person. The team attended more than 10 annual meetings of medical societies, each and every time sitting down with experts on-site to learn more about the conversations driving care and the challenges being overcome.

From those in the field of movement disorders this year, we learned about the latest pharmaceutical attempts to perfect the gold standard treatment for Parkinson disease, levodopa; highlights of the inaugural Advanced Therapeutics in Movement and Related Disorders (ATMRD) Congress; the advances in biomarker science; the lingering gaps in movement disorder care, particularly for women, and much more.

Here, we'll highlight the most-viewed expert interviews on NeurologyLive^® this year. Click the buttons to watch more of our conversations with these experts.

1. RISE-PD Study of IPX-203 in Parkinson Disease: Robert A. Hauser, MD, MBA

The director of the Parkinson’s Disease and Movement Disorder Center at the University of South Florida detailed the data presented at AAN 2022 and IPX-203’s potential in Parkinson disease. WATCH TIME: 3 minutes

“[With] the primary outcome measure of the increase in good ON time, many people look at it and say, ‘Well 0.53 hours is a half an hour increase in ON time, it’s not that much per day.’ But you have to keep in mind that patients received IPX-203 three times per day, compared to IR CD-LD an average of five times per day.”

2. Highlights of the Advanced Therapeutics in Movement and Related Disorders Congress: Jean Hubble, MD

The semi-retired neurologist and consultant with the PMD Alliance offered her takeaways from the 2022 ATMRD Congress in Washington, DC, and her advice for younger clinicians getting into the field. WATCH TIME: 3 minutes

“Being in the room at this congress with APPs, fellows, and senior residents has just been so exciting. I’ve learned so much from them, as well, particularly the APPs because they see medicine and the care of these individuals in a much different way than I do, either in my role back as an academician or in industry.”

3. Interdisciplinary Care and Hot Topics in Movement Disorders: Jill Farmer, DO, MPH

The director of the Parkinson’s Disease and Movement Disorder Program at Global Neuroscience Institute discussed the importance of a multidisciplinary approach to movement disorders and the hot topics of conversation at ATMRD. WATCH TIME: 2 minutes

“No one can be an expert in everything. You’ll have a doctor or an APP [as] somebody taking over the clinical role in conjunction with somebody who’s going to be dealing with the social issues, like a social worker or a therapist, and someone who’s going to be taking care of the rehab strategies.”

4. The Future of Tears as a Biomarker for Neurodegenerative Disorders: Mark Lew, MD

The director of the Division of Movement Disorders at the USC Keck School of Medicine provided insight on the next steps in how we can expand on tears as a valuable biomarker for neurodegenerative diseases. WATCH TIME: 4 minutes

“It’s extremely important that if we have a biomarker, it can discern the difference between Parkinson disease and the atypical syndromes, both in the synucleinopathies and the tauopathies. We need to look at [multiple system atrophy], Lewy body disease, [progressive supranuclear palsy], and corticobasal syndrome as well.”

5. Knowledge Gaps on Treating Women With Parkinson Disease: Indu Subramanian, MD

The director of the VA Southwest Parkinson’s Disease Research, Education, and Clinical Centers and clinical professor of neurology at UCLA discussed the lack of a more focused and specific approach to care for women with Parkinson disease. WATCH TIME: 6 minutes

“If you think about the ER doctor or whoever is seeing that patient in an urgent care who might be the only point of care, they’re not thinking that someone that looks like me could have Parkinson if they walk in with the types of symptoms that are very classic. The disease awareness and the societal thinking about who has Parkinson has really got to change.”

6. Future Plans, Goals for Prime PD: Konstantin Karmazin, MD

The chief medical officer of Prime PD, a new digital wellness studio for patients with Parkinson disease, detailed future initiatives for the platform. WATCH TIME: 4 minutes

“In general, exercise is good for everybody, and the nervous system, in particular, really responds well. As evidence develops—hopefully over the next year or 2—we would be very open to MS [multiple sclerosis] exercise fitness programs and things like that.”

7. The Need to Address Nonmotor Symptoms in Parkinson Disease: Neal Hermanowicz, MD

The neurologist at Christus St. Vincent Health System provided insight into the desperate need for new medications for both motor and nonmotor symptoms of Parkinson disease. WATCH TIME: 3 minutes

"Another top symptom that I hear all the time from my patients is the fatigue, and we don’t really have a good grasp on where it’s coming from. What do we do about that?"

8. Awareness of Botulinum Toxins in the Movement Disorder Landscape: Laxman Bahroo, DO

The assistant professor of neurology and codirector of the Neurology Residency Program at MedStar Georgetown University Hospital shared his thoughts on the 2022 ATMRD Congress and the steps forward made in patient awareness of therapeutic options. WATCH TIME: 3 minutes

“Botulinum toxins have been around for 30 years, but they’re still new. That’s the amazing thing about it. Every day I see patients who come in and tell me, ‘How long has this been going on for? This is the first time I’m getting injected.’ I hate to tell them this has been around for 30 years, but the awareness of botulinum toxins continues to grow.”

9. Exercise, Virtual Reality, and Exposing Prodromal Symptoms of Parkinson Disease: Jay Alberts, PhD

The Edward F. and Barbara A. Bell Endowed Chair at the Cleveland Clinic detailed how a new virtual reality tool elucidates prodromal symptoms from patients with Parkinson disease. WATCH TIME: 3 minutes

"What we’re looking to do now is gather the data that will eventually raise a red or yellow flag so that you go to the neurologist because your vitals look a little off. Those are things that we hope to do for sure."

10. PreciseDx's AI Morphology Feature Array for Detecting Parkinson Disease Pathology: John F. Crary, MD, PhD; Gerardo Fernandez, MD

The neuropathologist at Mount Sinai and chief science officer of Precise Dx pairing shared background information on artificial intelligence’s ability to improve the diagnosis of Parkinson disease from peripheral tissue biopsies. WATCH TIME: 9 minutes

“One of the major issues with [identifying pathology in peripheral tissue] is that the pathology is very, very hard to find. Screening these slides and finding these peripheral axons is super time-consuming and difficult. I was trained to do it, along with the other neuropathologists on the project, but the entire time I was thinking, ‘There’s got to be a better way to do this. It would be amazing if we could train an AI to do it.’ That’s where this project came from.”