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MONTH IN REVIEW | February 2024

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Our calendars are filling up for 2024!

Be sure to check out the list of exciting events below! We look forward to seeing you at many of these events.

We’d also like to say congratulations to Dr. Emily Forbes on her continued funding from the Huntington’s Disease Society of America for the University of Colorado Movement Disorders Center Huntington’s Disease Clinic.

The Parkinson’s Foundation recently published its 2023 annual report. We are excited to be a part of such important work and continue to enjoy our partnership with the Parkinson’s Foundation. We look forward to continuing to work with the Parkinson’s Foundation in 2024.

The Movement Disorders faculty and fellow spent time in February giving didactic lectures to the Neurology residents on campus. Education is very important to our team and we enjoy sharing with learners!

Dr. Michael Korsmo discussed his PD Visit Helper during his “What Your Doctor Really Wants to Know” presentation at our 10th Annual Parkinson’s Disease Symposium. Just for you, here is a copy of his PD Visit Helper for you to fill out and take to your next appointment!

Upcoming Events

Parkinson’s Foundation Revolution Denver
Saturday, February 24, 2024, 12:30 PM
Parkinson’s Foundation
CycleBar Southwest Plaza
Come see us at the Parkinson’s Foundation fundraiser. We’ll be cheering on riders and giving out some goodies!
Learn more here.

From Dependent to Independent: Treatment Options for Essential Tremor
Friday, March 3, 2024, 3:00 p.m. MST
Insightec
Virtual Event
We invite you to join Dr. Drew Kern of the University of Colorado Movement Disorders Center for a patient-centered educational even. During this event, Dr. Kern will address the treatment options tailored specifically to individuals with Essential Tremor.
Register here.

2024 Drag Queen Bingo (HDSA Rocky Mountain Chapter Fundraiser)

Wednesday, March 13, 2024, 7:00 p.m. MDT
HDSA Rocky Mountain Chapter
Hamburger Mary’s 1336 East 17th Avenue, Denver, CO
Register here.

Navigating Advancing Needs

Saturday, June 15, 2024, 1:00 p.m. MDT
Parkinson’s Foundation
Jewish Community Center, 350 South Dahlia St., Denver, CO 80246
Join MDC faculty and other speakers at this event! Navigating Parkinson’s disease involves looking ahead, learning and adjusting as symptoms and needs change. This program addresses some of the challenges of advancing PD and explores strategies to prepare for the future, including how to evolve you care plans and treatments throughout progression so you can live you best life with PD now.
Register here.

In the News

In the News

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February 23, 2024

Our calendars are filling up for 2024!

Be sure to check out the list of exciting events below! We look forward to seeing you at many of these events.

We’d also like to say congratulations to Dr. Emily Forbes on her continued funding from the Huntington’s Disease Society of America for the University of Colorado Movement Disorders Center Huntington’s Disease Clinic.

The Parkinson’s Foundation recently published their 2023 Annual report. We are excited to be a part of such important work and continue to enjoy our partnership with the Parkinson’s Foundation. We look forward to continuing to work with the Parkinson’s Foundation in 2024!

The Movement Disorders faculty and fellow spent time in February giving didactic lectures to the Neurology residents on campus. Education is very important to our team and we enjoy sharing with learners!

Dr. Michael Korsmo discussed his PD Visit Helper during his “What Your Doctor Really Wants to Know” presentation at our 10th Annual Parkinson’s Disease Symposium. Just for you, here is a copy of his PD Visit Helper for you to fill out and take to your next appointment!

Are you interested in supporting the education of our fellows? Learn more, including how, by visiting our Fund-a-Fellow page.

Upcoming Events

Parkinson’s Foundation Revolution Denver
Saturday, February 24, 2024, 12:30 PM
Parkinson’s Foundation
CycleBar Southwest Plaza
Come see us at the Parkinson’s Foundation fundraiser. We’ll be cheering on riders and giving out some goodies!
Learn more here.

From Dependent to Independent: Treatment Options for Essential Tremor
Friday, March 3, 2024, 3:00 p.m. MST
Insightec
Virtual Event
We invite you to join Dr. Drew Kern of the University of Colorado Movement Disorders Center for a patient-centered educational even. During this event, Dr. Kern will address the treatment options tailored specifically to individuals with Essential Tremor.
Register here.

2024 Drag Queen Bingo (HDSA Rocky Mountain Chapter Fundraiser)

Wednesday, March 13, 2024, 7:00 p.m. MDT
HDSA Rocky Mountain Chapter
Hamburger Mary’s 1336 East 17th Avenue, Denver, CO
Register here.

Navigating Advancing Needs

Saturday, June 15, 2024, 1:00 p.m. MDT
Parkinson’s Foundation
Jewish Community Center, 350 South Dahlia St., Denver, CO 80246
Join MDC faculty and other speakers at this event! Navigating Parkinson’s disease involves looking ahead, learning and adjusting as symptoms and needs change. This program addresses some of the challenges of advancing PD and explores strategies to prepare for the future, including how to evolve your care plans and treatments throughout progression so you can live your best life with PD now.
Register here.

In the News

Here are a few noteworthy articles that were published recently. Some of our faculty have contributed to the articles below. We encourage you to check them out.

MONTH IN REVIEW | June 2023

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Congratulations to our 2023 Movement Disorders Fellowship Graduates!

Congratulations to Dr. Heather Heiser and Dr. Antonia Pusso for completing their Movement Disorders Fellowship. Dr. Heiser will be starting practice as a movement disorder and general neurologist in Seattle, Washington. Dr. Pusso will be continuing her training with a Palliative Fellowship at the University of Colorado. We wish them the best of luck in their next journey and look forward to hearing all of the great things they are doing.

Dr. Brooke Heffernan and Dr. Matthew Woodward have been promoted to their second year of fellowship and we are excited to welcome two new first-year fellows on July 5, 2023. Be sure to welcome Dr. Ollesch and Dr. Timmerman if you see them in the clinic.

We also want to send congratulations to Dr. Michelle Fullard who has been awarded the NIH K-12 Building Interdisciplinary Research Careers in Women’s Health. This prestigious, two-year award is designed to support junior faculty who are interested in a career in women’s health research. Way to go, Dr. Fullard!

Finally, congratulations to Dr. Jeanne Feuerstein and Dr. Matthew Wooward for their poster presentation at the Samuel Belzberg 6th International Dystonia Symposium.

We invite you to help the Movement Disorders Center honor 10 years of providing our annual education day to the Parkinson’s community by joining the faculty and staff this fall.

Our free, hybrid event will be on Saturday, October 28 from 9:00 am-2:00 pm and the Anschutz Health Sciences Building or virtually via Zoom. The event is designed for people with Parkinson’s disease, care partners, and families. Healthcare professionals and anyone interested in learning more about Parkinson’s Disease are welcome.

The symposium is given by a team of experts and aims to update the community about Parkinson’s disease. We are excited to have some of our agenda announced on our event page. You’ll also find a link to register.

One of the ways we are celebrating our anniversary is by creating a top ten list of things that people with Parkinson’s disease and their care partners wish they knew sooner. We’d love to hear from you! Enter your answers via our event page and we’ll create an anonymous list of the top ten answers.

All of this information and links can be found on our event page. Click the button below to view the page.

10th Annual PD Symposium

MONTH IN REVIEW | May 2023

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May is Huntington’s Disease Awareness Month!

The University of Colorado Movement Disorders Center will host its annual Huntington’s Disease Education Day on October 7, 2023. More details will come soon. Follow our Facebook page to learn more.

On May 17, the MDC hosted its annual Research Retreat. Each year, the Movement Disorders Center brings together basic science researchers and clinical researchers to discuss the research going on for Movement Disorders across campus and across the state of Colorado. Many of these projects are still underway, but we look forward to sharing results with you when we are able.

As we move into summer, we look forward to seeing the Movement Disorders Community at many great, annual events.

Subscribe!
May Newsletter

Intradepartmental Grant Winners

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Congratulations to Dr. Jeanne Feuerstein and Dr. Emily Forbes who received the 2022-23 Neurology Intradepartmental Grant Award this year. Since 2016, the University of Colorado Department of Neurology has provided funding to junior faculty to protect their time to develop new research concepts. This award funding lasts for one year.

Previous winners from the movement disorders group include Dr. Michelle Fullard, Dr. Drew Kern, Dr. Christina Vaughan, and Dr. Isabelle Buard.

Congratulations, Dr. Feuerstein and Dr. Forbes!

Transitions

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The Movement Disorders Center is growing again! A handful of providers have moved on from our center for various personal reasons, including retirement and spouses being transferred to new positions. But we are excited to welcome new faculty to our group.

The faculty and staff at the center continue to be dedicated to improving the lives of people with movement disorders.

We announced in our newsletter that Dr. Alex Baumgartner and Dr. Michael Korsmo will be graduating from our fellowship program and will be joining us as faculty in August. Both bring niched areas of expertise that will help round out our center.

Dr. Baumgartner will be joining Dr. Kern as part of our advanced therapies and deep brain stimulation (DBS) team in the operating room. In the past few years, the number of DBS surgeries performed yearly has nearly doubled. The team has recently added a new neurosurgeon and more programmers as well. Dr. Baumgartner will see patients in the clinic at the Anschutz Medical Campus and in Lone Tree.

Dr. Korsmo will be expanding our reach to underserved communities. In addition, he will be seeing patients at our main clinic on the Anschutz Medical Campus and at our Boulder clinic.

Dr. Vaughan is expanding her neuro-palliative clinic. Her clinic will now be found at the Anschutz Medical Campus. By moving her clinic, Dr. Vaughan and her patients will have access to more services and resources. Her focus will now be neuro-palliative care; the main difference is that she will not be the primary movement disorders specialist for patients. She will still serve the movement disorders community through neuro-palliative care during all stages of diseases. She will still be available to all patients for neuro-palliative care via telehealth.

For more information about neuro-palliative care, you can read our Fall 2021 newsletter.

New Faces in HD Clinic

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The HDSA Center of Excellence at the University of Colorado Movement Disorders Center hosts a monthly HD Clinic on the fourth Monday of each month. This clinic is an interdisciplinary clinic which means there are multiple specialists available for your appointment. These appointments last a little longer than usual appointments.

Dr. Lauren Seeberger founded The HSDA Center of Excellence at the University of Colorado in 2016. When Dr. Seeberger left the Univerity of Colorado in the summer of 2021, Dr. Emily Forbes took over as the director of the clinic.

Dr. Emily Forbes, Director of HDSA Center of Excellence

Emily Forbes, DO, MS is a board-certified neurologist with fellowship training in movement disorders. She attended medical school at NYIT College of Osteopathic Medicine. During medical school, she was awarded an American Medicine Scholarship and completed her Master’s Degree in addition to her medical degree. She completed her internship in medicine and residency in neurology at the University of Colorado School Anschutz Medical Campus. She completed her two-year fellowship at The University of Pennsylvania Parkinson’s Disease and Movement Disorders Center and the Philadelphia VA Medical Center Parkinson’s Disease Research, Education, and Clinical Center (PADRECC). Her research interests include understanding the genetic basis of neurologic disease which lends wonderfully to her new role as director of The HDSA Center of Excellence at the University of Colorado.

Kaitlin Smith, MS, CGC is a Neurology-trained Genetic Counselor at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus. She attending the Arcadia University/University of Pennsylvania Genetic Counseling program and is a board-certified genetic counselor. She completed a fellowship in Neurology at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus. Ms. Smith sees individuals and families with a variety of neurogenetic conditions, including Huntington’s disease.

Meghan Smith, LCSW has worked in the field since 2008. Her undergraduate work was with the March of Dimes Family Support Program at the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at Children’s Hospital Colorado. Meghan earned her Master’s of Social Work in 2015 from the Metropolitan State University of Denver with a primary focus in Mental Health and an additional emphasis in grief counseling. From 2013-2018, Meghan created and managed a program that focused on serving individuals who have neurodevelopmental disorders like autism, and other developmental and intellectual disabilities to attain and retain employment in the Denver community. For the past 3 years, Meghan has worked in Neurology at the University of Colorado School of Medicine and UCHealth as a social worker serving patients and their families. Meghan is happy to be back with CU Medicine working with patients and families affected by Huntington’s disease.

2021 Hellos and Goodbyes

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The first of July is the start of a new academic year at the University of Colorado School of Medicine. It’s a bittersweet time as we welcome new team members and say goodbye to others.

This year, we are excited to have two new fellows joining up – Heather Heiser, MD and Antonia Pusso, MD. Dr. Heiser went to medical school at Michigan University at the Grand Rapids campus. She completed her Neurology residency at Ruch University in Chicago. Dr. Pusso obtained her medical degree in Charlottesville, VA and completed her residency training in Boston, serving as chief resident in her final year. Both new fellows will complete two years of fellowship training at the University of Colorado Movement Disorders Center.

Dr. Alex Baumgartner and Dr. Mike Korsmo completed their first year of fellowship and are currently starting their second year. We look forward to having them with us for another year.

Dr. Teresa Lee has graduated from the two-year Movement Disorders Fellowship and joined our faculty on July 1, 2021. Welcome to the team, Dr. Lee!

Finally, we are sad to announce that Dr. Lauren Seeberger has stepped away from the University of Colorado Movement Disorders Center. She joins family in another state and will be helping to develop an up-and-coming Neurology and Movement Disorders program. Dr. Seeberger contributed a lot to our program during her tenure here. She will be missed, but we wish her the best of luck on her next adventure.

There were many changes in July, but the Movement Disorders Center looks forward to another incredible academic year.

2021 Annual Research Retreats

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One of the roles of the faculty and staff in academic medicine is conducting research. In addition to seeing patients and teaching the next generation of neurology and movement disorders providers, faculty conduct research to identify new therapies and – ultimately – find a cure for the disease they treat.

On June 2, the University of Colorado Department of Neurology hosted its 11th Annual Research Retreat. This event allowed subspecialists, fellows, and residents an opportunity to share their ongoing research with their peers. In addition to the presentations, the department also hosted a poster session. In a virtual setting, faculty, staff, and medical learners gave brief overviews of their research projects.

On June 9, the University of Colorado Movement Disorders Center hosted its Annual Research Retreat hosted by Isabelle Buard, PhD. The MDC’s Research Retreat is for researchers only and includes clinician-scientists and bench scientists. Presenters give a brief overview of their project and then immediately answer questions from the audience (other researchers). The goal of this day is to develop and nourish collaborations in movement disorders research across different campuses and institutions in the state of Colorado.

The Research Retreat also gives the Movement Disorders Pilot Grant Recipients an opportunity to share their projects. Each year, the Movement Disorders Center formally asks for early-career researchers across Colorado to submit proposals for pilot grant projects related to movement disorders. These requests are intended to give researchers the funding they need to collect data for larger research projects. Awardees with well-developed projects are funded up to $10,000 and one year to complete their research projects. Many of the awardees have subsequently been awarded larger grants from larger organizations to continue their research.

If you are a researcher interested in learning more about our pilot grant program, our annual research retreat, or more about the research at our Center, please see our For Researchers page or join our mailing list.

Getting Back in the Community

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June was a wonderful month. The faculty and staff of the Movement Disorders Center were able to join the Parkinson’s community in person.

On June 6, 2021 The Movement Disorders Center participated in the Vitality Walk for the Parkinson’s Association of the Rockies (PAR). Providers, researchers, staff, and their families walked and ran in support of PAR. PAR is a local non-profit organization that provides education, exercise classes, equipment trials, and many more resources. This year PAR is celebrating 40 years of service to the Rocky Mountain Region.

You’ll see more of the Movement Disorders Center at upcoming PAR Educational events. Please see our Events page for a full list of our upcoming speaking engagements.

On June 12, the Parkinson’s Foundation hosted their Revolution Ride. For the first time, this event was held in Denver. Riders were able to join in person or virtually. The University of Colorado Movement Disorders Center was designated a Parkinson’s Foundation Center of Excellence in 2019. Being able to join them for an in-person event finally was very exciting.

We hope to continue making progress towards being in-person for our events soon. It was wonderful to see everyone in person again.

Welcome to Our New Fellows

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The Movement Disorders Center values training the next generation of movement disorders specialist. We host medical students and neurology residents. In addition, our movement disorders center section hosts a fellowship program.

Our fellows have completed their medical training in Neurology and have elected to deepen their expertise in movement disorders. We’d like to give a warm welcome to our newest first-year fellows, Dr. Alexander Baumgartner and Dr. Michael Korsmo.

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Dr. Baumgartner was born and raised in Lakewood, CO. He obtained his medical degree from Brown University in Providence, RI. He completed his residency training at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center/Harvard Medical School in Boston. During his residency, he served as chief resident in his final year. He is excited to being a fellowship in Movement Disorders in July 2020 and to be returning home to Colorado.

Dr. Korsmo completed his medical education at Tulane University School of Medicine and completed residency training at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. While in residency, he created and launched the university’s first Global Health Neurology rotation with the first site n Malawi. He also served as Chief Resident of Education where he restructured their introductory “Boot Camp” and Morning Report sessions. Beyond Movement Disorders, his interests include education, clinical reasoning, and global/rural health.

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Dr. Baumgartner and Dr. Korsmo join Dr. Teresa Lee who is completing her second year of fellowship. We look forward to working with our new fellows. Say hello when you see them in clinic.