Parkinson's clinic map released

As the 23rd World Parkinson's Disease Day falls on Thursday, the China Parkinson Alliance and pharmaceutical company Boehringer Ingelheim's Parkinson's disease patient community website Pajo.cn jointly released the China Parkinson's Disease Clinic Map v2.0. It's an online application that provides the most up-to-date and comprehensive clinic information for patients with Parkinson's disease.

The China Parkinson Alliance also sponsored National Parkinson's Disease Free Clinic Week, a program for disease awareness education.

Chen Biao, chairman of the China Parkinson Alliance, and director of the National Clinical Research Center for Geriatric Disorders, said the organizers hope the joint campaign engaging 60 medical institutions will significantly raise people's awareness about Parkinson's disease nationwide. They also hope it will help healthcare practitioners at Parkinson's disease clinics to better interact with community residents, and help people to easily find nearby Parkinson's disease clinics by using the updated clinic map.

Chen, who also is director of the Parkinson's Disease Research and Treatment Center with Xuanwu Hospital, Capital Medical University, said Parkinson's disease clinics were established across the country in response to the call by the national health authorities to leverage specialist clinics to treat specific diseases, to constantly improve diagnosis, treatment and prevention of Parkinson's disease in China.

So far, nearly 500 such clinics have been set up in China, covering 150 cities and counties. Many of them have launched integrated service channels to help patients receive interdisciplinary and standardized long-term treatment and management, which is of great significance to improve the quality of life for patients, he added.

Dirk van Niekerk, head of Human Pharma of the China branch of Boehringer Ingelheim, said the company has been committed to providing patients with innovative solutions that help them better control the disease and improve quality of life, and is also actively engaged in various patient care programs to offer a full range of support to patients with Parkinson's disease.