Parkinson's disease specialists at San Francisco VA Medical Center receive $5 million to expand treatment, education and research center

In recognition of its international leadership in treatment of and research on Parkinson's disease, researchers at the San Francisco Veterans Affairs Medical Center will receive approximately $5 million dollars from the Department of Veterans Affairs to establish the San Francisco Parkinson's Disease Research, Education and Clinical Center (PADRECC).

The funding is part of a $30 million commitment by the VA to establish six Parkinson's disease centers at VA Medical Centers across the country, according to an announcement today by VA Under Secretary for Health, Thomas Garthwaite.

These newly established centers will be modeled on SFVAMC's Center for Parkinson's Disease, which was established in 1998, said William J. Marks, Jr., MD, director of the new PADRECC, neurologist at SFVAMC, and UCSF assistant clinical professor of neurology.

"Since the SFVAMC established its Parkinson's disease center two and a half years ago, we have been the singular comprehensive referral center in the national VA system for Parkinson's patients, and the only VA medical center where patients could receive access to the complete spectrum of treatment options for this disease, including state-of-the-art treatments like deep brain stimulation," he said.

"The VA's support for this center, and our collaboration with UCSF's Center for the Surgical Treatment of Parkinson's Disease & Movement Disorders, has allowed our treatment team to become a worldwide leader in research and delivery of the latest treatments for Parkinson's disease," Marks said.

Each of the six VA Parkinson's centers, which will be located at San Francisco, West Los Angeles, Houston, Portland, Or, Philadelphia, and Richmond, Va, will conduct research on the basic mechanisms of the disease, as well as in the areas of rehabilitation, health services delivery and clinical trials of new treatments, Garthwaite said.

The network of VA Parkinson's centers will enable collaboration in research projects, coordination of clinical care strategies, and improvements in education for health care providers and patients.

SFVAMC's existing research and clinical program focuses on surgical treatments for Parkinson's disease and other movement disorders, and studying the physiology improving brain imaging of these disorders, Marks said.

SFVAMC has become a leader in one of the most effective treatments for Parkinson's disease -- deep brain stimulation. In deep brain stimulation, electrodes are surgically implanted into movement-controlling centers in the patient's brain and attached to a pacemaker-like device that delivers electrical pulses to those centers. These pulses counteract the abnormal brain activity that occurs in Parkinson's disease, resulting in the restoration of near normal control of movement to the patient, Marks said.

"In a great majority of cases, deep brain stimulation can improve the symptoms of Parkinson's disease and other movement disorders, and it has the added advantages of being adjustable, reversible, and not destructive to brain tissue," Marks said.

Marks has teamed with neurosurgeon Philip A. Starr, MD, PhD, chief of neurosurgery at SFVAMC, and UCSF assistant professor of neurological surgery, to treat more than 100 veteran patients with deep brain stimulators. Starr has worked with Marks and Chadwick Christine, MD, UCSF assistant professor of neurology, in treating 100 additional patients at UCSF Medical Center with deep brain stimulation therapy.

"In the past two years at SFVAMC and UCSF Medical Center, we have become the most experienced team in the United States in applying deep brain stimulator technology to help patients with disabling movement disorders, and we have been acknowledged as leaders in Parkinson's disease care. This new funding is recognition of that work, and it provides the resources to further develop our program," Marks said.

Parkinson's disease is a common, slowly progressive disorder caused by degeneration of cells in the brain that produce the neurotransmitter dopamine. Symptoms are tremor, slowed movement, stiffness of limbs, and problems with walking or balance. While treatments exist, there is no cure for this debilitating disease.

Parkinson's disease is a serious health problem in the United States. The National Parkinson Foundation estimates that as many as 1.5 million Americans have the disease and that approximately 50,000 new cases are diagnosed each year.

The San Francisco Veterans Affairs Medical Center has been a primary affiliate of University of California, San Francisco since 1974. The UCSF School of Medicine and the SFVAMC collaborate to provide medical student and housestaff education and training programs at SFVAMC. SFVAMC maintains full responsibility for patient care and facility management of the medical center. Physicians at SFVAMC are employed by the Department of Veterans Affairs and also hold UCSF faculty appointments.