Working With Interdisciplinary Teams in Movement Disorders: Temitope Lawal, MD

WATCH TIME: 2 minutes

“It’s like the story of the elephant. It depends on where you touch the elephant if you’ll be able to see the full picture of that elephant. If someone touches the leg, they might think it’s a tree. If they touch the tail, they may think it’s a snake. It’s when everyone sees it in a broad picture that they see it is an elephant. I think that’s also how we need to see Parkinson’s disease and other movement disorders. Bring all of our perspectives to the table.”

Much of medical practice in larger and academic institutions around the United States has shifted toward a multispecialty or interdisciplinary model of care. This approach offers great advantages for patients and clinicians as it offers a variety of perspectives on disease management as well as holistic treatment for patients. Although, its utilization can be limited by access to resources for community neurologists and advanced practice providers (APPs).

Medical conferences such as the recent inaugural Advanced Therapeutics in Movement and Related Disorders (ATMRD) Congress, held in mid-June 2022, in Washington, DC, offer opportunities for these clinicians to come together and generate that potentially difficult interdisciplinary engagement. But, even for those such as Temitope Lawal, MD, neurologist and movement disorders fellow, University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center, who can currently utilize this model in the clinic, there are still benefits to additional interaction.

In speaking with the PMD Alliance, who held the ATMRD Congress along with MedStar Georgetown University Hospital, Lawal shared his perspective on the benefits of this treatment model and the value that multispecialty engagement can bring to clinical care. He also shared some of his experience in getting to participate in this model in his regular clinical practice.

Click here for more coverage of ATMRD 2022.