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On Sunday 26 March 1996 the American Parkinson Disease Association, Southern California Chapter and the APDA Information & Referral Center at the Good Samaritan Hospital in Los Angeles held the Eleventh Annual Medical Symposium. My wife and I attended the event. Our estimate of the attendance was about 250. PD is truly an equal opportunity disease. Attendees were young and old, male and female, all colors of the rainbow and last names that likely originated in every corner of the globe. This is only the second "organized" Parkinson specific meeting we have attended, even though I have been on drug therapy for 6 years. The meeting was very useful and much different than I expected it to be. For the benefit of those who did not attend, I am enclosing a summary of what I found to be the high spots: The formal meeting began with introductions of APDA staff, including Frank Williams, Executive Director, who we later learned had a heart transplant. The APDA staff focused on the work to be done, including support for the Udall Bill. Naturally, the work takes money and they asked for financial support for the organization. An APDA staffer later confirmed that the PD organizations will at sometime join together. That was met with applause by the audience. She said that she expects the APDA to join (merge?) with another organization within weeks. A. Lieberman, MD of the Barrow Neurological Institute, Phoenix AZ discussed the current status of PD strategies, both in terms of drug and surgical treatment. He demonstrated with an attendee using a cane, how posture can often be improved simply by walking with hands behind the waist. That method of walking forces shoulders backward and the spine upright. (I tried it and it works! It relieved pain in my neck.) Susan Imke a Nurse Practitioner at Barrow, spoke of medication and how we must be explicit in defining problems and we must be logical in dealing with PD. For example, don't wait until 4:45 PM on Friday to call for a prescription since the pills run out Friday PM. The presentation was well conceived and reiterated how we need to use common sense and help our medical team help us. A most incredible fellow spent about 10 minutes as the luncheon speaker. Masoud Karkihabadi, a PD researcher at University of California, Irvine (UCI) Medical School discussed his research into neuro growth factors (NGF) and how he expects them to become the treatment (cure?) of choice in not too many years. What is extraordinary about Mr. Karkihabadi's opinion? Masoud is 13 years old, a high school graduate at 7 and a UCI graduate with a BS in biochemistry. He graduated from UCI on his 13th birthday. I have read about Masoud in our local newspaper over the past years. His parents have been slowing down his academic endeavors due to his age. As I recall the story, his aunt was studying nursing and when he was 3 he read one of her texts regarding neurology and decided to make PD research and cure his goal in life. At age 3, he read a computer manual once and then began writing programs. Masoud is described as an APDA "Spokesperson" and I got the impression that his project receives APDA financial support too. After Lunch, D. Jacques, MD spoke about surgical treatments: Thalamotomy using the Gamma Knife, pallidotomy using thin probes to approach the globus pallidus and using a RF (radio frequency) probe to cause a lesion. Finally, the fetal tissue implant was discussed. Susan (last name?), well known to many in the audience was introduced. She had implant surgery 2 weeks before the meeting. Dr. Jacques did anything but give a strong "pitch" for surgery. It is risky and does not always do what it is planned to do. He did mention the importance of having a neurologist who sees many PD patients since proper diagnosis is the key to treatment. Diagnosis of Idiopathic (cause unknown) PD is qualitative and not simply read from an MRI or blood test results. The final speaker was T. Chase, MD of the NIH who spoke of the government research and government sponsored research. The focus of his talk included exciting prospects from NGFs and the ability to clone or tailor drugs using gene splicing techniques. He also spoke about some drugs now in the test and evaluation cycle and the benefits these palliatives will bring to us. Most of the speakers stayed to take part in a panel discussion answering written questions from the audience. We left the meeting with renewed hope that good things are happening and even today we have options for our treatment. The APDA did a great job and deserves our support. The speakers were well prepared, the site easy to get to and believe it or not, the luncheon was equal to that of any fine restaurant.