EAN 2022 | MANAGE-PD: a tool to evaluate symptom control in Parkinson’s disease

Angelo Antonini, MD, PhD, University of Padua, Padua, Italy, describes a major challenge in the Parkinson’s disease (PD) field, which is providing a uniform evaluation of patients. The early stage of diagnosis relies on symptom manifestations, which are usually recognized by neurologists and clinicians within a year. However, as the disease progresses, fluctuations in the clinical state arise, including motor fluctuations and OFF symptoms, which are not easy to recognize. To provide a more uniform assessment of patients with PD, Prof. Antonini’s team created a tool called MANAGE-PD. The instrument is designed to support healthcare providers in the identification of patients with PD uncontrolled on oral medications, to enable informed decision making. It is a list of simple, yet meaningful, questions designed to understand if patients fall into three scenarios: 1) well optimized treatment, 2) not well optimized treatment and may benefit from treatment adjustment, and 3) not optimized and not responding to other medications. Identifying patients as being in group 3 highlights them as candidates for alternative treatment options including surgery and device-aided therapy. This interview took place at the European Academy of Neurology (EAN) 2022 Congress in Vienna, Austria.