Centers Across the Country Collaborate to Find New Treatments for Parkinson’s Disease
JFK Medical Center Is A Long-Standing Member of A Scientific Network; Focusing First on Sleep and Neuro-Ophthalmology
Providing a full spectrum of services for patients with Parkinson’s disease (PD), JFK Medical Center is part of the Parkinson Study Group (PSG), an international consortium of medical centers that specialize in the condition. PSG has carried out more than 35 multi-center trials examining the symptomatic and neuroprotective effects of experimental interventions in Parkinson’s disease. It has partnered with numerous pharmaceutical companies and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in bringing new drugs for Parkinson’s disease to the market including pramipexole, entacapone, rotigotine and rasagiline. The team at JFK currently is conducting research with fellow colleagues in sleep and neuro-ophthalmology as well as participating in several pharmaceutical trials.
JFK Medical Center is one of only a handful of hospitals in the country with the facilities and expertise to perform MRI-guided Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) surgeries. This brain pacemaker system continuously delivers an electrical stimulus to the affected regions of the brain. The electrical pulse is small and is not felt by the patient, however it is able to affect the activity of the brain to improve the symptoms of Parkinson’s disease.
JFK Johnson Rehabilitation Institute was recently awarded a grant from the Parkinson Voice Project to provide specialized training in the groundbreaking SPEAK OUT!® and The LOUD Crowd® treatment protocols designed to improve and preserve the voices of people with Parkinson’s Disease and Parkinson-plus syndromes.
One of only two facilities in New Jersey to receive this grant ― and related specialized training and certification ― the speech-language pathologists at JFK Johnson Rehabilitation Institute are trained to work through speech, voice and cognitive exercises that help improve articulation, breath support and vocal quality.