 |
 |
ListFolks and Friends: A follow-up note to the helpful postings by Charles Meyer, Helen Mason et al re: tonight's NBC-DATELINE show: This is a big one. NBC has scheduled it for "sweeps" week (as you know, that's the time of year when they like to show off the best of their wares to customers and advertisers). The segment focuses on a patient (and her family) who go through the surgical procedure of deep-brain stimulation (in the area of the subthalamic nucleus--the one that's still under a research protocol in the United States) ) at Emory University in Atlanta. As you all know, the Emory program (it's a research center of the APDA), under Dr. Mahlon de Long, is one of the finest in the world. The program--which was more than ONE YEAR in the making!!--follows the patient from the preliminary interviews, through the surgery, through several months of follow-up. I have not seen it (and they are holding the details rather close to their chests) but I think we can expect a riveting documentary experience. (One--shades of our recent Internet exchanges about the Parade piece!--that's neither totally upbeat or totally downbeat!). Bob Bazell, the leading science and medicine reporter on television these days, is the reporter. NBC has made arrangements to field follow-up calls from people who are interested in hearing more about the procedure (and other surgical approaches, and PD generally) -- both via Emory itself and by way of PDF and the other PD foundations (I understand we're all to be hotlinked to the NBC website). If you like the show and want NBC to know your feelings, you may also want to drop them a note or an e-mail; networks love that and it increases our chances of further coverage later. A warning: the continuation of the dreary Bill and Monica soap opera (today's the day for release of the Linda Tripp tapes, for goodness' sake) may dominate the lower-middlebrow sections of the airwaves tonight; I understand that even Dateline is giving over the first part of its show tonight to a Nightly News special segment on the subject. But as of mid-morning Tuesday, the Parkinson's piece was still scheduled to run (during the second half of the show). NBC is by all accounts very proud of it. Good viewing! Robin Elliott, Executive Director, Parkinson's Disease Foundation P.S. Dateline airs at 10 p.m. on the East and West Coasts but I'm not sure about Mountain and Central. Check your local listings.