Parkinson’s Voice Project to Live-stream Presentation on the Disease’s Myths

The Parkinson Voice Project will be live-streaming an expert’s presentation on the misconceptions about Parkinson’s disease on April 14.

Columbia University Professor Stanley Fahn’s presentation will start at 10 a.m. U.S. Central Daylight time. It will be followed by speech therapy award presentations and a choir performance. The title of the presentation will be “Myths and Misconceptions in Parkinson’s.”

You can catch the live streaming on the Parkinson’s Voice Project’s website and Facebook page. A recording of the event will also be posted on the website by April 20.

Fahn’s presentation is timed to the weekend after World Parkinson’s Day on April 11. Dr. James Parkinson, whose birthday is April 11, discussed the disease in “An Essay on the Shaking Palsy” in 1817. It was renamed Parkinson’s disease because of his contributions to its study.

The Parkinson Voice Project is based in Richardson, Texas, a suburb of Dallas. All the seats are gone for the in-person event, but anyone can watch the live streaming.

The award presentations will be for the SPEAK OUT! speech therapy program and the LOUD Crowd speech therapy and singing maintenance program. The performance will be from the Intentional Singers choir.

Fahn will not only discuss Parkinson’s misconceptions but also ask where patients get these myths. Some misconceptions are about treatments, including levodopa, which Fahn believes is the most effective medication for reducing Parkinson’s movement symptoms.

He will also discuss treatments that some physicians administer without understanding that the strategies for treating Parkinson’s have advanced over the years.

Basically, the presentation is for those wanting to learn more about Parkinson’s and other movement disorders.

To keep viewers engaged, the Parkinson’s Voice Project will give a short quiz after the presentation.

Viewers will be asked to list three common Parkinson’s myths, to name three reliable resources of information about the disease, and to describe the training needed to become a movement disorder specialist.

Fahn is the H. Houston Merritt professor of neurology and director emeritus of the Center for Parkinson’s Disease and Other Movement Disorders at Columbia University.

He and his colleague C. David Marsden established the Movement Disorder Society, which was later renamed The International Parkinson and Movement Disorder Society. The two also developed the professional journal Movement Disorders.

In addition, Fahn founded the World Parkinson Coalition and was president of the American Academy of Neurology between 2001 and 2003.