In July I was in Barcelona to attend the 6th World Parkinson Congress or WPC. As expected, it was a few very intense days with many impressions and interactions. One of my commitments was to speak in a morning plenary session. It was the start of day 2 of the conference and there were people sitting on most of the 1 750 chairs in the room. I was proud and honoured to be part of the impressive lineup.
The main title of the session was “Tracking Disease Progression in Parkinson’s: Why and How?” and it was chaired by neurologist and movement disorder specialist Cecilia Peralta from Argentina together with Linda K Olson who is a physician and person with Parkinson’s, as well as a triple amputee. You can read more about Linda on her website here, and in her captivating memoire “Gone: A Memoir of Love, Body, and Taking Back My Life”. Trust me, you do want to read more about her!
The first speaker was professor Bas Bloem from Radboud University in the Netherlands who did an excellent job outlining why we should track PD. Equally excellent were the presentations by professor David Standaert and professor Thilo van Eimeren covering blood and tissue-based tests and imaging to track PD.
A recording of my talk, with the title “To track or not to track” can be found below. It is filmed with a mobile phone so the audio is not perfect. I recommend turning on the captions (in English).
