UC Davis professor highlighted in Parkinson's Disease documentary

"Living with Parkinson's"

Norika Malhado-Chang

UC Davis Assistant Professor of Neurology Norika Malhado-Chang was featured in a recent documentary, “ViewFinder: Living with Parkinson’s.” The film offers a look at the lives of individuals in the Sacramento region who are afflicted by the debilitating disease and their caregivers.

"Living with Parkinson’s” explores how collaborative research explorations are providing unique insights that are improving patient quality of life and leading Sacramento-area doctors to redefine caring for patients with the incurable neurodegenerative disorder.

Parkinson’s strikes more than 60,000 Americans each year, affecting men and women of all backgrounds, regardless of whether they have a family history of the disease. An estimated 4 percent of people with the disorder are diagnosed before age 50. Lack of understanding is one of the biggest challenges in treating the condition, but as more patients come forward to share their experiences, more light is shed on the disorder.

Through candid interviews with Garry Dukes, a young husband, father and patient of Malhado-Chang’s, and retired school teacher Betsy Alver, the film takes viewers inside the lives of Parkinson’s patients to provide rare glimpses into their challenges, triumphs and hopes for a cure.

The video is available online at kvie.org/viewfinder. The program is sponsored by UC Davis Health System.

UC Davis Medical Center is a comprehensive academic medical center where clinical practice, teaching and research converge to advance human health. Centers of excellence include the National Cancer Institute-designated UC Davis Comprehensive Cancer Center; the region's only Level 1 pediatric and adult trauma centers; the UC Davis MIND Institute, devoted to finding treatments and cures for neurodevelopmental disorders; and the UC Davis Children's Hospital. The medical center serves a 33-county, 65,000-square-mile area that stretches north to the Oregon border and east to Nevada. It further extends its reach through the award-winning telemedicine program, which gives remote, medically underserved communities throughout California unprecedented access to specialty and subspecialty care. For more information, visit medicalcenter.ucdavis.edu.