Mary Chapman,  features writer—

George Ackerman lost his mother to Parkinson’s disease in 2020 when she was 69, and he still grieves for her. But he is also driven — to honor her, to raise awareness about the neurodegenerative disorder, and to support the search for a cure. He maintains a website, hosts…

Remote health monitoring company Empatica is partnering with the consortium Mobilise-D to advance the use of digital endpoints in clinical care and research across disorders that include Parkinson’s disease. The collaboration will integrate Mobilise-D’s validated digital mobility outcomes (DMOs) with Empatica’s Health Monitoring Platform. With this,…

For the first time, two table tennis players with Parkinson’s disease will represent the nonprofit ITTF Foundation at the ITFF World Masters Championships Rome 2024. The players, Steve Morley and Agnes Jan, will join a record field of more than 6,000 athletes at the July 6-14 event at…

An adult with early-onset Parkinson’s disease, who is nearing age 50, will compete on the world stage this summer as a mixed-doubles rower at the Paralympic Games in Paris. Todd Vogt of Portland, Oregon, who was diagnosed in 2018 with early-onset Parkinson’s at age 43, will represent…

A host of entertainers and other celebrities turned out for the 27th annual Power of Love gala to celebrate country music star Blake Shelton and support the Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health. Held at MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, the event was presented by…

Six years before world champion boxer Muhammad Ali was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, his young daughter noticed he was slurring his speech. It was around the time of Ali’s heavyweight championship fight against Leon Spinks. “People thought he was ‘punch drunk’ from boxing,” the daughter, Maryum “May May” Ali,…

Scientists at the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Information Technology (FIT) in Germany are collaborating on a project with the aim of creating a digital platform and application that, used with a wearable device, can track the course of Parkinson’s disease and potentially improve patients’ quality of life. Called…

A dozen years after its first meeting, the International Linked Clinical Trials (iLCT) program is continuing to expand upon its ongoing efforts to ultimately heighten the number of treatment options in Parkinson’s disease and improve patients’ quality of life. The patient-centered global program, a collaboration of the U.K.’s …

Updated exercise guidelines for those with Parkinson’s disease released by The Michael J. Fox Foundation (MJFF) now include Nordic pole walking as a suggested aerobic activity to help mitigate symptoms and improve everyday life. The exercise, a Finnish-derived low-impact total body walk, is also known as urban…

Three biobehavioral scientists at Teachers College (TC), Columbia University are working on separate collaborative efforts in exercise, speech, and swallowing among Parkinson’s patients to potentially improve quality of life for the more than 10 million people estimated globally to be living with the progressive neurodegenerative disease. In honor…