WorldCare Wire Winter 2024
Welcome to this edition of WorldCare’s quarterly e-newsletter, where you’ll learn how a WorldCare Medical Second Opinion (MSO) gives you access to specialty and sub-specialty care teams. You’ll also learn about Parkinson’s disease and research advances from The WorldCare Consortium® providers.
For Your Health: WorldCare MSOs Give You Access to Leading Specialists and Care Teams
WorldCare’s medical second opinions are provided by teams of specialists and subspecialists from top-ranked hospitals and institutions within The WorldCare Consortium®. Our MSO teams have comprehensive expertise in diagnosing and treating serious and complex conditions.
Your case gets reviewed by some of the best medical minds, without you needing to leave home. Your WorldCare MSO is personalized for your unique health issues and includes access to the latest research and clinical advances.
Fast facts about The WorldCare Consortium®:
• 6 top-ranked institutions for critical conditions by U.S. News and World Report
• 20,000+ specialists and sub-specialists
• $4 billion annual investment in U.S. biomedical research
Health IQ: Parkinson’s Disease
Parkinson’s disease is a neurodegenerative disorder that affects dopamine-producing neurons in the substantia nigra in the brain. Symptoms such as tremor in the hands, slowed movement, stiff limbs, and gait and balance problems usually develop over several years.1
In addition to these “motor” symptoms, people living with Parkinson’s may experience depression, anxiety, apathy, hallucinations, constipation, a drop in blood pressure when standing, sleep disorders, a loss of sense of smell, and various cognitive impairments.1
While the rate of progression differs among individuals, Parkinson’s gets worse over time and no cure has been found yet.2 However, there are medical and surgical treatments that can substantially improve the quality of life for individuals living with the disease. For example, medications aimed at boosting dopamine can help mitigate symptoms of slowed movement, tremor, and rigidity. Other treatments include exercise, physical, and speech therapy, and, for some, surgical treatment with deep brain stimulation. 3
Parkinson’s by the numbers:
• Parkinson’s affects more than 6 million people worldwide.4
• Parkinson’s is the second most common neurodegenerative disease after Alzheimer’s disease.5
• Motor symptoms only develop later in the disease course, after 60 to 80% of the neurons in the substantia nigra have been impaired.1
• Men are 1.5 times more likely to develop Parkinson’s than women.5
1 Parkinson’s Foundation. What is Parkinson’s? Accessed at https://www.parkinson.org/understanding-parkinsons/what-is-parkinsons
2 World Health Organization. Parkinson disease. Accessed at https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/parkinson-disease
3 UpToDate. Patient education: Parkinson disease treatment options — medications (Beyond the Basics). Accessed at https://www.uptodate.com/contents/parkinson-disease-treatment-options-medications-beyond-the-basics
4 The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research. Parkinson’s 101. Accessed at https://www.michaeljfox.org/parkinsons-101
5 Parkinson’s Foundation. Who has Parkinson’s? Accessed at https://www.parkinson.org/understanding-parkinsons/statistics
The WorldCare Consortium® Research Update: McLean Hospital Researchers Make a Promising Discovery for Improving Stem Cell Treatments for Parkinson’s Disease
In 2017 and 2018, Mass General Hospital neurosurgeons implanted dopamine-producing neurons into the brain of a patient with Parkinson’s disease who was no longer responding to medications. The implanted neurons, derived from stem cells from the patient’s own skin, resulted in modest symptom improvements.
Recently, researchers from the Molecular Neurobiology Laboratory at McLean Hospital, part of Mass General Brigham, learned from animal studies that some dopamine cells do not survive transplantation due to an inflammatory response triggered by the procedure. To address this issue, they transplanted dopamine-producing neurons together with immune cells called T-regulatory cells into rodent models. The novel strategy resulted in dramatically increased neuron survival.
The WorldCare Consortium® Provider Research News
AI Helps Gastroenterologists Find and Remove 13% More Colorectal Polyps
Most colorectal polyps are benign, but nearly all colorectal cancers start as polyps. Removing polyps as early as possible reduces the risk of developing colon or rectal cancer in the future.
Recent research at Northwestern Medicine showed that gastroenterologists performing colonoscopies assisted by AI achieved a 13% increase in detecting and removing colorectal polyps compared to those who did not use AI. Previous studies have indicated every 1% increase in detection translates to a 3% decrease in cancer risk within 5 years of a colonoscopy.
Northwestern Medicine now offers AI-guided colonoscopies using the FDA-approved Medtronic GI Genius™ computer-aided detection system at all locations, including its nine acute-care hospitals and four outpatient locations in suburbs of Chicago.
Study Finds Using Multiple Rating Scales is a Better Metric for Predicting Positive Responses to Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation for Major Depressive Disorder
Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) is an approved therapy for treating major depression that does not respond to medications. The effectiveness typically ranges from 30% to 60%, according to previous studies.
UCLA Health researchers recently analyzed outcomes of more than 700 patients treated with rTMS for a six-week period with four depression rating scales. Overall, 54% of patients reported a significant response on one or more rating scales. However, when only one rating scale was considered, the results missed up to a third of total positive responses. The investigation also revealed that patients who reported improvements within the first five or 10 treatments were most likely to respond throughout the course of treatment.
UCLA Health’s precision approach to rTMS includes a psychiatrist seeing patients at every treatment session and tracking patients’ symptoms weekly with multiple rating scales.
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