Meet the Researcher: Disparities in PD Care

Substantial Matters: Life & Science of Parkinson’s

As with many medical conditions, people with Parkinson’s disease (PD) may experience disparities in access to care, in diagnosis, treatments, and ancillary care. These disparities may be based on age, gender, race, financial situation, language barriers, and geographic location, among other factors. Dr. Lynda Nwabuobi, now a movement disorders specialist at New York-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Parkinson’s Disease and Movement Disorders Institute in New York City, received her specialized training at Columbia University, supported by a Parkinson’s Foundation Movement Disorders Fellowship.

During her training, she noticed that women with PD who were home-bound were more likely than men to be alone and to have less access to a neurologist. She also recognized disparities in the care between the majority white population of people with PD seen at the main hospital clinic of New York University (NYU) compared to the more racially diverse, multicultural community of people seen at NYU’s public Bellevue Hospital nearby – even though they were being treated by the same doctor. In this episode, she describes how she acted on her passion of “creating access to better care to marginalized communities and bring more diversity to the clinic.” Rather than waiting for the community to come to the health care setting, she reached out to them on their turf -- at a farmers’ market.