A Series of Webinars on Management of Parkinson's Disease
11th April is celebrated, world over, as world Parkinson’s day. This is after the birth date of Dr. James Parkinson who 1st described the features of Parkinson’s disease.
200 years later we still depend on the symptoms that had been described by Dr. Parkinson to make a diagnosis of this disease.
Parkinson’s Care Trust and Jaslok Hospital conduct a series of patient awareness programs and initiatives every year starting from March onwards.
This is usually followed by a free diagnostic camp for Parkinson’s disease patient who cannot afford to be seen privately by eminent Consultants.
Patients are given the same attention an evaluation during this free camps that they would have got in a paid private consultation.
This year we have been struck by COVID and hence we could not physically conduct a patient education and awareness program.
We therefore decided to conduct a series of Webinars, so as to unable the patients and their caregivers to be updated about coping and living with Parkinson’s disease.
13th March 2021- Free Online Parkinson's Webinar
The first webinar was focused on improving quality of life of Parkinson’s disease patient. Mrs. Bharati Karkera, who has been working with Parkinson’s disease patient for last 20 years, gave a first-hand insight into what she thought was important for improving the quality of life of Parkinson’s disease patient.
This had come from the experience of 100 and 100s of patients that she had interacted with during these many years.
Several small tips were provided which would go a long way to enhance the day to day function of Parkinson’s disease patient.
Ms Jyothi Bhatt, provided practical tips for patients to manage their diet and fluid. She focused on various nutritional aspects of diet specific to Parkinson’s disease patient and also addressed several concerns of patients like constipation and increased frequency of urination.
Dr. Paresh Doshi highlighted the importance of various hobbies which are essential to maintain good mood, morale and memory function in patients of Parkinson’s disease.
20th March 2021- Free Online Parkinson's Webinar
This was a live demonstration where patients, care givers and instructors performed live in the studio like setup, various educational therapies.
The first one was demonstration by Dr. Shaikh for improving the speech in patients of Parkinson’s disease.
She demonstrated this by making Parkinson’s disease patient perform various speech related exercises and practically demonstrated as to how this improvement can be achieved.
Dr. Deepak Tandel, Physiotherapist, showed various exercises to maintain posture and balance in patients of Parkinson’s disease. He gave practical tips on how to walk, how to get up, etc.
Dr. Aparna Budhkar demonstrated the impact of meditation and counselled the patient and the caregiver as to how they can incorporate this in the daily activities to benefit from the Meditation program.
27th March 2021- Free Online Parkinson's Webinar
The third webinar was aimed at improving the spirit of Parkinson’s disease patient.
Once again Mrs. Karkera gave a practical lecture aimed at caregivers attending Parkinson’s disease patient.
It is very important that the caregivers of Parkinson Disease patient also do not get burnt out and have a good quality of life.
This was followed by a lecture by from Dr. Rebecca Gilbert, Vice President of APPDA, about how to win over Parkinson’s disease.
Several Parkinson’s disease patient shared there is inspirational stories about how they have been able to conquer Parkinson Disease and get ahead of the life.
Some of this patient have not only continued to work but have diversified their interests and developed new areas of skills, like writing, paining or social activities.
3rd April 2021- Free Online Parkinson's Webinar
The last webinar was focused on the update on the medical and surgical managements of Parkinson’s disease.
Dr. HU gave an updated review of the current medical therapy that is available for Parkinson’s disease patient. He also shared the knowledge about the newer therapies that are in the pipeline.
He also talked about some advanced medical therapies like Duodopa infusion and Apomorphine infusions. This was followed by a lecture from Dr. Wadia who shared the experience of managing non-motor symptoms of Parkinson’s disease patients.
These symptoms are sometimes more bothering than motor symptoms. Some of the symptoms include disturbed sleep, constipation, increased sweating, DOPAMINE dysregulation syndrome etc.
Dr. Paresh Doshi gave an updated review of the current surgical management including deep brain stimulation surgery for Parkinson disease patient.
He shared his experience of more than 500 surgical cases of Parkinson’s disease patient undergoing DBS. He highlighted that this surgery can be performed with safety even in elderly patients above 70 years.
Dr. Paresh Doshi further on shared the various aspects of caution and precautions that one needs to take after undergoing DBS surgery.
Basically, the patient can leave a virtually normal life, however, he has to be careful about making sure that his pacemaker does not get exposed to strong electromagnetic interference.
This session was followed by intense questions an answer from the audience.
All these webinars can be accessed free of cost to all the members of Parkinson’s Care Trust.
The membership of Parkinson Care Trust is also free of charge.
You can become a member of Parkinson’s care trust by filling up in online form on https://tinyurl.com/PDTrust
