Your PD A-Team
with family members
YOUR PD A-TEAM, a panel discussion on the Multi-Disciplinary Approach To Living Better With PD, presents speakers that span the disciplines of Movement Disorder Neurology, NeuroPsychology, and Social Work, as well as actual perspectives from family members.
Dr. Michael Rezak and Dr. Jennifer Pallone, of Vassar Medical, present their PD A-Team, including Neuropsychologist Dr. Michael Mercury and Clinical Social Worker Debra Crystal to give us the direction and clarity needed to live well with PD.
Musical interlude with Arlon Bennett.
Michael Rezak, MD, PhD, Director of the Movement Disorders Program at Health Quest, received his medical degree from Loyola Stritch School of Medicine, having already earned a master’s in psychology and a doctorate in brain anatomy from the University of Illinois Medical Center. He then completed a fellowship in visual system neurophysiology at the University of Illinois Medical Center.
A physician, researcher and teacher, Dr. Rezak was a Distinguished Physician Endowed Chair of the Parkinson’s Disease Research Society, Northwestern Medicine West Region, before joining Health Quest. He served for many years as Section Chief of Neurosciences at Northwestern Medicine Central DuPage Hospital in Winfield, Illinois. He has also held assistant professorships in neurology at Northwestern University and Yale University.
Dr. Rezak’s broad research interests include medical and surgical treatments for Parkinson’s disease, symptom management and quality of life for Parkinson’s patients, deep brain stimulation applications and techniques, and bioethics.
Dr. Jennifer Pallone is a board-certified neurologist with 25 years of experience. Currently practicing with Nuvance Health’s Movement Disorders Center in Poughkeepsie New York based at Vassar Brothers Medical Center providing subspecialty neurological care to patients with disorders such as Essential Tremor, Dystonia, Parkinson’s Disease, Huntington’s Disease, and Tourette’s Syndrome.
Practice experience includes many years as director of The Aging Brain and Movement Disorders Clinic in northwest Indiana at The Neurological Institute and Specialty Centers followed by practice with Northwestern Medicine Regional Medical Group in the Neurodegenerative Diseases Center/Movement Disorders Section.
Michael Mercury PhD is a clinical neuropsychologist with Northwestern Medicine Regional Medical Group and Director of Psychology. He is the former Douglas L Johnson Endowed Chair in Neurosciences. Dr. Mercury specializes in memory and the cognitive aspects of movement disorders and dementias. Dr. Mercury received his PhD in Clinical Psychology from the Illinois Institute of Technology. He completed his internship at the University of Chicago and a Northwestern University affiliated fellowship in neuropsychology at Evanston Hospital. Dr. Mercury holds the academic position of Health System Clinician at Northwestern’s Feinberg School of Medicine and previously held an academic appointment at the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine.
Debi Crystal LCSW is a licensed clinical social worker in neurosciences at Chicago’s Northwestern Medicine, Western Region. Debi received her master’s in social work from Hunter College School of Social Work, City University of New York. She has been in practice for more than thirty years and has worked as both a community social worker and a facility social worker. For the last twelve years she has worked with people who have neurological diseases and their families.
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