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I have just finished watching the Primetime Live segment on MTPT. For those of us who follow the literature there really was not anything new, but it definitely served a purpose in keeping PD in the public consciousness. During this Decade of the Brain I have noticed a marked increase in news segments and specials on PD. Of course MTPT was only half of the story, the second half being about FTI. I wonder if it was just a coincidence that this comes up less than a week after the Chicago Hope episode. One thing that I have noticed in the news media stories about PD is a tendency to not present all sides of the story. There is still a lot of follow-up to be done on the FTI cases and that takes time. Also no mention was made that FTI is being done at the University of Georgia. In another area several articles on Pallidotomy in magazines and newspapers make it sound like a cure-all for PD when in fact a majority of PD patients would not benefit from it. (My parents send me every article they come across and often ask why I am not having this or that procedure done. I then have to explain what the facts actually are.) My major concern is that while these news stories keep PD in the public eye, they often give the impression that a cure is a lot closer than it actually is. There is plenty of good liturature published by the various PD associations, but the primary recipients of this are the patients and caregivers. What is needed is more emphasis on getting the information out to the general public. I have writen articles on PD for the university newspaper and any student who takes one of my classes learns quite a bit about PD. I not only expain it to them directly during the first class session, I also incorporate it into my lectures (e.g. comparing message packets on a network to neuo- transmitters). BTW, my previous messages were saved out in ASCII but with line breaks. I am manually inserting Carriage Returns in this message and avoiding quotes, so that should take care of the =nn problem. I am using Word 6.0 and it apparenly uses a non-ASCII line break. Bruce ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Bruce G. Warr "Experience is what enables us to recognize Healthcare Informatics Lab a mistake the next time we make it." Information Systems Dept. University of Maryland Baltimore County http://umbc.edu/~warr/ (V) (410)455-3206 (F) (410)455-1073 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~