Patients as Providers

Patients as Providers;

Patients as Providers was presented by PLWP (People Living With Parkinson's) .org. This organization is an online support community whose goal is to provide information and aid to PLWP's. To this end, we invited the parkinson's community to join us for a round table discussion and we were overwhelmed by the response we got. The number of people who showed up to participate was just one sign of the public's need and desire to share in their treatment and offer their own input.

This first of it's kind symposium was held on Sunday, May 8th at 2 p.m. at the University of Illinois College of Medicine at Peoria in the lecture hall.

This event provided an opportunity for research scientists, practicing neurologists, parkinson's patients and their families to engage in a free forum and to interact for the express purpose of communication and an open exchange of ideas and discussion of problems. The agenda of the program is as follows:
*Talk by Phillip C. Jobe, Ph.D.
Chair, Dept. of Biomedical & Theraputic Sciences
Professor of Pharmacology
TOPIC: A History of Pakinson's Disease and the Need for Pooling our Resources

*Talk by Richard J. Weber, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Immunopharmacology and Microbiolgy
TOPIC: Treatment Alternatives and What We Can Look Forward To

Break for Refreshments provided by the Parkinson Alliance

 Question and Answer Time

Participating in this: Dr. Weber, Dr. Jai Kumar, Carol Walton (executive director of the Parkinson Alliance), John Lester (Information Systems Director, MGH Neurology & Research Associate for the Harvard Medical School), Brenda Tucker and Nancy Abraham (co-founders of PLWP.org) and the 80+ people
in the audience.

The event is free and open to all people with Parkinson's, their family members and caregivers.

Phillip C. Jobe and Richard J. Weber, of the college's department of biomedical and therapeutic sciences, and other physicians and researchers will exchange ideas with the audience. Sponsored by an Internet support group, People Living with Parkinson's, the event is the first in a national series of "Patients as Providers" programs. The group's Web site can be found at www.plwp.org.