Iowa City is Next Stop for Parkinson’s Foundation’s Team Training Program

The Parkinson’s Foundation is bringing Allied Team Training for Parkinson’s (ATTP), its signature professional education program, to Iowa City, Iowa, on March 27-30.

The program is intended to help medical professionals from diverse disciplines learn the best techniques in Parkinson’s care. 

Using a dynamic team-based approach, the training program is geared toward physicians, physician assistants; nurses; social workers; nurse practitioners; and occupational, music, speech, and physical therapists.

The interactive curriculum is offered in partnership with the University of Iowa Hospitals & Clinics, a designated Parkinson’s Foundation Center of Excellence. These centers — there are 45 worldwide — have specialized teams made up of an array of healthcare professionals and others knowledgeable about the latest in Parkinson’s care.

“The Parkinson’s Foundation is committed to providing healthcare professionals with the latest research and best practices that improve care for people living with Parkinson’s disease,” John L. Lehr, president and CEO of the Parkinson’s Foundation, said in a press release.

He said attendees will learn how to provide personalized and patient-centered care, and at the right time, throughout the disease’s progression. The concept is based on the idea that because each patient experiences Parkinson’s differently, a diverse healthcare team fosters better symptom management.

Featuring a mix of online courses and an extensive in-person curriculum, the program offers continuing medical education credits and continuing education units to eligible participants. Led by an interdisciplinary faculty of senior movement disorder specialists, training includes interactive case presentations, care planning with patients and caregivers, discipline-specific and interdisciplinary team development sessions, and patient and caregiver panels.

“Building upon our strengths in providing world-class care for patients, and conducting leading-edge research, our support from the Parkinson’s Foundation is allowing us to expand our interdisciplinary care, to increase our community involvement and educational activities for other healthcare professionals and patients across Iowa, and to attain even greater heights in the treatment of everyone affected by Parkinson’s disease,” said Ergun Uc, MD, professor of neurology and director of the Division of Movement Disorders at University of Iowa Hospitals & Clinics.

By the end of the program, participants should be able to explain the complexity of Parkinson’s motor and non-motor symptom management for all disease stages, identify challenges with medication side effects, list six non-pharmacological management strategies for non-motor symptoms, discuss options available to support patients and their families, describe the complementary role of each discipline on their care team, and apply strategies for building inter-professional networks and community partnerships.

Since its 2002 inception, the ATTP has trained more than 2,000 healthcare professionals in the United States and Canada.

Future ATTP training includes the Medical University of South Carolina (fall 2019), Massachusetts General Hospital and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (spring 2020), Struthers Parkinson’s Center (fall 2020), Oregon Health & Science University (spring 2021), and the University of Kansas Medical Center (fall 2021).

Visit this site for more information about the Iowa event, and to register. Registration fees are $500 per person; $450 per person for teams of three or more. Attendance is free for physician fellows and eligible students.

More information about the foundation’s professional educational programs is available here.

The Parkinson’s Foundation works to enhance patient care and advance research toward a cure. According to the organization, 60,000 U.S. residents are diagnosed with Parkinson’s each year.