Early Successes in Remote Research: Enabling Enrollment in Clinical Trials
October 30, 2024
Synapticure has worked with The Michael J. Fox Foundation to establish an expert advisory board of people living with Parkinson’s to leverage its national platform to drive rapid access and innovation in care and patient experience for people living with Parkinson’s across the country.
The State of Care in Parkinson's Today
An estimated one million Americans are living with Parkinson's disease (PD) today. However, lengthy wait times, long distances from Centers of Excellence (COE), and a scarcity of sub-specialized neurologists mean that fewer than 30% of those patients are currently under the care of a Movement Disorders Specialist and as little as 10% have access to a COE.1,2 This means that hundreds of thousands of patients may never get access to specialized treatment plans and innovative clinical trials, slowing down the pace of acceleration for Parkinson's research.
How Synapticure Will Address This
With Synapticure's national telehealth offering, specialized Parkinson's care is available to patients in the comfort of their own homes and in partnership with their existing care teams, regardless of where they live in the United States. The Michael J. Fox Foundation has worked with Synapticure to establish a Parkinson's Expert Advisory Board composed of PD patients and care partners that will help Synapticure continuously improve and innovate its care to meet the evolving needs of the Parkinson's community and to advance research.
Additionally, using patient onramps created by The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research (MJFF), Synapticure patients will be made aware of opportunities to participate in clinical trials and other research opportunities. Synapticure's goal is to provide care for people living with Parkinson's regardless of where they live and whether they are seeing a movement disorder specialist. By doing this, we can reach a diverse group of people living with Parkinson's and help diversify those who are in clinical research.
How This Works
Synapticure brings comprehensive, cutting-edge virtual care to people living with Parkinson's, enabling remote access to Movement Disorder Specialists, Care Coordinators, virtual speech and language therapy, in-home physical therapy, clinical trial education and support, and insurance navigation support, with mental health care coming soon. Synapticure is in-network with most major insurers and will bill patients' insurance providers for any medical visits.
MJFF is the largest, non-profit funder of Parkinson's research in the world and is dedicated to finding a cure for Parkinson's disease through an aggressively funded research agenda and to ensuring the development of improved therapies for those living with Parkinson's today. To date, MJFF has funded more than $1.75 billion in global research programs. The Foundation also sponsors the Parkinson's Progression Markers Initiative — a landmark clinical study with 50 global sites and the most robust Parkinson's dataset and biorepository in the world (which to date has been downloaded by global researchers more than 12.5M times).
"I am really excited to have the Michael J. Fox Foundation as an advisor to Synapticure, as their expertise and leadership in the fight against Parkinson's will help us build out the best-in-class care platform for people living with Parkinson's," said Synapticure co-founder Brian Wallach. Synapticure CEO, Sandra Abrevaya, added, "By working together, we can help bring care to every person living with Parkinson's in the US and, at the same time, help accelerate the research that will lead to breakthroughs in this fight."
Evelia Deane, MJFF's Vice President of Partnerships and Alliances, says, "Incorporating the voice of the patient in research and in the development of solutions for care is essential. MJFF commends groups like Synapticure who have prioritized direct engagement with the Parkinson's community, through opportunities like their Parkinson's Expert Advisory Board."
Synapticure's Movement Disorder team is led by Dr. Jaime Hatcher-Martin, a long-standing advocate for the use of telemedicine to democratize expert neurological care and reduce patient burdens. Prior to joining Synapticure, Dr. Martin practiced at Emory University, where she started her own telemedicine clinic for patients with movement disorders in 2016, and at SOC Telemed (now Access Telecare). She is a Fellow of the American Academy of Neurology, served as co-chair for their Telemedicine Workgroup as well as many other telehealth subcommittees, and is on the Telemedicine Study Group for the International Parkinson and Movement Disorder Society.
People living with Parkinson's can sign up today for a telehealth visit with Synapticure's care team, which for most is covered by insurance.
