University of Florida Movement Disorders Center
The University of Florida Movement Disorders Center (UFMDC) was established at the Evelyn F. and William L. McKnight Brain Institute in July 2002, to bring together UF doctors and researchers with special expertise in Parkinson's disease, tremors, dystonia and other movement disorders. The UFMDC is a National Parkinson Foundation Center of Excellence, a Tyler's Hope Center for Comprehensive Dystonia Care and a National Ataxia Foundation Center of Excellence.
  • More About the UFMDC
    • MDC Directors
    UFMDC Directors: Clinical Director, Dr Rodriguez, and Center Co-Directors Drs. Fernandez, Okun and Foote

    UFMDC News and Blog

    Introducing the first Dystonia Educational Day Center at the UFMDC

    Filed under: education — Tags: , — Jennifer Reichwage on October 20, 2009

    The Tyler’s Hope Center for Comprehensive Dystonia Care is pleased to introduce the first Dystonia Educational Day Center which will be held on Friday, November 13th.  The program will run from 8:30am – 3:00pm and will include invited guest speakers from our interdisciplinary team including psychiatry, physical therapy, communication sciences, occupational therapy and neurology.  The program is open to dystonia patients and a caregiver. 

    For more information, please contact Jennifer Reichwage at jenniferr@neurology.ufl.edu.

    Allied Team Training for PD at UF Site

    Filed under: education — Michael Okun on October 14, 2009

    Allied Team Training for Parkinson’s Disease was hosted at the University of Florida Gainesville– Movement Disorders Center site (Sept 30-Oct 4).  Teams came from all over the country to train in best practices in the interdisciplinary care of the Parkinson’s disease patient.  UF took advantage of the hosting venue to get a ton of Shands, VA and UF therapists from all disciplines trained.  The program has to date trained almost 1200 people worldwide and it is a signature program of the National Parkinson Foundation.  Special thanks to Irene Malaty, Rachelle Stephen and Janet Romrell for coordinating all of the activities.  Patients can take solace in knowing UF teams have twice attended this event, and we hope provide world class care for Parkinson’s disease (Ruth Hagestuen, Elaine Cohen, and Denise Beran from NPF are the contacts if anyone is interested in attending one of the trainings).

    Parkinson Disease and Driving

    Filed under: education — Tags: , , — Chuck Jacobson on August 11, 2009

    Driving is one of the biggest issues facing a Parkinson patient as their disease progresses. Our friends at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston put together a video for the National Parkinson Foundation about this struggle with advice for patients and caregivers. Watch it at the NPF website here.

    At our center, Dr. Sherrilene Classen and her team can advise patients and caregivers on what to consider.

    Dystonia Awareness Day on Twitter

    Filed under: education — Tags: , , , — Chuck Jacobson on August 4, 2009

    The Dystonia Medical Research Foundation (DMRF) has a Twitter account and they put out the call for dystonia sufferers and anyone else to tweet about dystonia on one particular day, July 22nd. Twitter is a messaging system limited to 140 characters that a lot of individuals are using, mostly as a “microblog” and many companies and organizations are using for public relations.

    We decided that participating in this event was important especially since a significant portion of our patients have different types of dystonia. Also, the general public and medical community needs to be more informed about it.

    Through our account @UFMDC, we posted about 40 messages tagged with #dystonia. Together with the other tweeters #dystonia reached the number 38 position of most tweeted terms (or “trending topics”) for the whole day and it was #26 at around 4pm eastern. Dystonia sufferers posted their experiences while all of us posted educational links or news stories on dystonia. Many people learned about dystonia that day and dystonia patients made connections with each other.

    The only organizations to participate were the DMRF, Tyler’s Hope and the UFMDC. We look forward to trying this again at some point and hopefully we can inform even more people about this disorder.

    Medicine - Our physicians see dozens of patients each week in the UF Movement Disorders Clinic.

    Surgery - University of Florida neurosurgeons use deep brain stimulation and other techniques to treat patients with Parkinson's Disease and other movement disorders

    Education - Fellows, medical students, graduate students and pre-meds learn about movement disorders while working at the UFMDC and shadowing our physicians.

    Research - Researchers from multiple disciplines work together to find new and better treatments for movement disorders while looking for causes and cures.

    Why go to the University of Florida for your Parkinson's or Movement Disorders surgery?

    Answer: Because the UFMDC has one of the largest interdisciplinary teams in the world dedicated to making sure your deep brain stimulation device is placed correctly.

    You will see a fellowship trained movement disorders neurologist, a fellowship trained movement disorders neurosurgeon, and you will receive the best possible medical optimization. Additionally, you will have access to a complete interdisciplinary team of experts in every area (speech, voice, walking, balance, memory, depression/anxiety disorders, rehabilitation, driving, occupational therapy, etc.) who specialize in the care of Parkinson's and Movement Disorder Patients.

    We will ensure you are the right candidate, and discuss with you in detail what symptoms we think you can expect to improve with a deep brain stimulation surgical therapy. Your case will be discussed in detail with the interdisciplinary team prior to any surgical intervention. In addition we will provide a top-notch operating room experience with a neurologist, microelectrode multiple pass mapping, and careful imaging and guidance for the proper placement of your device. After it is implanted you will have full access to a dedicated staff for programming and followup of your medication and DBS needs. Should you have any problems we are always available to help you.

    UF logoMBIShands logo