Watch Now: Webinar on the Future of Parkinson's Disease Therapy with Focused Ultrasound

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In December 2018, the US FDA approved focused ultrasound to treat patients with tremor-dominant Parkinson’s disease.

Clinical trials are underway to evaluate if additional symptoms, such as dyskinesia, can be treated with focused ultrasound. Another early study is evaluating the safety and feasibility of opening the blood-brain barrier (BBB) in patients with Parkinson’s dementia in hopes that, if successful, disease-modifying drugs can be delivered to the brain to address the dementia associated with the disease.

On April 29, 2020, Nir Lipsman, MD, PhD, FRCSC, of Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, highlighted exciting clinical results and ongoing studies in the area.

About the Speaker
Nir Lipsman is a neurosurgeon and scientist at Sunnybrook Research Institute and Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, and an Assistant Professor in the Department of Surgery at the University of Toronto. He completed his medical degree at Queen’s University, and his neurosurgical residency and PhD at the University of Toronto. Dr. Lipsman’s research focuses is on the development of novel neuromodulation strategies for neurologic and psychiatric disease and over the last 10 years, he has helped lead several clinical trials of MR-guided focused ultrasound (FUS) in novel indications, including among the world’s first experience of FUS in essential tremor, malignant brain tumours, Alzheimer’s Disease and psychiatric disorders. Dr. Lipsman has published over 120 peer-reviewed papers and textbook chapters and is currently the director of Sunnybrook’s Harquail Centre for Neuromodulation and the co-director, along with Dr Kullervo Hynynen, of Sunnybrook’s Focused Ultrasound Centre of Excellence.