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PMDC named a Lewy Body Dementia Association Research Center of Excellence

PMDC named a Lewy Body Dementia Association Research Center of Excellence

By Sean Gorman

The VCU Parkinson’s and Movement Disorders Center (PMDC) is now officially recognized as a Lewy Body Dementia Association (LBDA) Research Center of Excellence, a designation that boosts the PMDC’s efforts to unlock more answers on treating the neurodegenerative disease.

The center is now the only one in Virginia that has that designation from the LBDA, a national nonprofit organization dedicated to improving the lives of those living with Lewy body dementia.

​​PMDC Director Brian Berman, M.D., notes that becoming a Lewy Body Dementia Association Research Center of Excellence is the latest distinction bestowed on the center. The PMDC has also been named a Center of Excellence for treating Parkinson’s disease, Huntington’s disease, and Multiple System Atrophy, and is also recognized as a Center of Care for people with Progressive Supranuclear Palsy. 

“The research center of excellence distinction is a well-earned recognition of the expertise that the VCU PMDC offers in seeking groundbreaking, evidence-based treatments that better the lives of people living with Lewy body dementia,” Berman says. “I’m proud of everyone on the team who secured this honor, which further establishes our center as a destination for patients wanting to be part of cutting-edge studies that help improve Lewy body dementia care.”

The honor raises the PMDC’s visibility for patients seeking care and positions the center as a top candidate to participate in clinical trials on ways to treat the neurodegenerative disease, adds Matt Barrett, M.D., a movement disorders neurologist and the Lewy Body Dementia Association Research Center of Excellence director at the PMDC.

“It means patients are coming to a place where their disease is really understood, where they can get the best treatment and where they can also participate in research studies,” Barrett says. “We’re actually finishing two clinical trials right now, but there will certainly be more on the way.”

Those two existing studies are examining whether certain drug treatments might slow the progression of Lewy body dementia – the second most common form of dementia after Alzheimer’s disease.

Lewy body dementia is characterized by a progressive neurological decline after symptoms first arise, which is typically in a patient’s older years. It causes movement disturbances as well as problems with sleep, cognition, hallucinations and other symptoms, according to the Lewy Body Dementia Association.

“It's a difficult condition. The symptoms are often quite severe, impairing and debilitating,” says Trey Bateman, M.D., a behavioral neurologist at Wake Forest University who will soon be joining the faculty at VCU. “But being treated by people who really understand that particular condition increases the likelihood that you're going to get a good outcome for managing symptoms.”

PMDC’s depth of research into the disease was a key factor in being named an LBDA Research Center of Excellence. In addition to the two current clinical trials, the PMDC has been working to develop a “biomarker” to detect and diagnose Lewy body dementia earlier. Also helping the center’s application is the PMDC team’s wealth of expertise in treating the disorder and its support group for caregivers of Lewy body dementia patients.

The PMDC applied for the distinction last summer and learned in late November they had received it. The honor includes a $12,500 annual award that will help cover the cost of having a coordinator focused on Lewy body dementia research, and it comes just as Bateman is preparing to join the PMDC in August.

“He’s trained as a behavioral neurologist, and that's important because patients with Lewy body dementia might first be referred to a movement disorder specialist or a cognitive neurologist,” Barrett says. “It’s important to have both types of providers for patients.”

Bateman says being a research center of excellence offered an additional incentive to join VCU Health, noting he’s already been collaborating with Barrett on research studies and will continue to do so at the PMDC.

“I was already pretty set on coming to VCU, but the LBDA Research Center of Excellence designation is definitely something that was another thing that drew me in because I, like Matt, see patients with Lewy body dementias,” Bateman says. “I think it’s really a fantastic expansion of what the PMDC has already been doing in the space.”