USF Health is an academic health center on the leading edge of treatment and research for Parkinson’s disease and other movement disorders.

In addition to evaluating new medications, investigators here are working on new surgeries and innovative cell-based therapies that may offer hope for patient who no longer benefit from medications. They are also looking for ways to determine those at high risk for Parkinson’s, so that the degenerative brain disorder can ultimately be prevented before it starts.

USF Health has two clinics designated privately-funded centers of excellence for Parkinson’s disease – one on its South campus (adjacent to Tampa General Hospital) and the other on the North campus (Morsani Center for Advanced Healthcare).

Established on the South campus in 1986, the USF Health Parkinson’s Disease and Movement Disorders Center directed by Robert Hauser, MD, has been a National Parkinson’s Foundation Center of Excellence since 2005.

Begun in 2008, the North campus clinic is supported by the Parkinson’s Research Foundation. The PRF Center of Excellence is headed by Juan Sanchez-Ramos, PhD, MD, medical director and the Helen Ellis Endowed Chair for Parkinson’s Disease Research at USF, and Dr. Theresa Zesiewicz, MD, director of clinical research. Together they co-direct a PRF Tampa Bay chapter for patients with Parkinson’s and their families.

These neurologists collaborate with USF Health neurosurgeons, including Donald Smith, MD, one of the first neurosurgeons in the country to implant a deep brain stimulator to help suppress tremors; Fernando Vale, MD, co-surgical director of the Parkinson’s Disease Surgery Program; and Thomas Freeman, MD, medical director of the USF Center for Aging and Brain Repair and a national leader in neural transplantation research for Parkinson’s disease.

In addition to their national prominence in Parkinson’s disease research, USF doctors are experts in a wide range of other movement disorders including Huntington’s disease, dystonia, tremor, restless legs syndrome, and ataxia.

– Story by Anne DeLotto Baier, USF Health Communications