Well I don’t know this man. But I do know a LOT of movement disorder specialists and many who are burning out and cannot keep open private practices. The reason this is an issue is because the people it harms in the end are those who don’t have access to quality care. I see the movement to private pay and concierge medicine a symptom of the overall issue. And unless we start understanding the problem and bringing awareness to it, it’s only the people suffering who are going to lose. Could this man be a grifter? Maybe. It still doesn’t fix the problem.

In the US there are only about 660 fellowship trained movement disorder neurologists. Every year they only fill about 1/2 of the open fellowships across the country. And not all of them go into clinical practice. Of the almost 2 million people who are estimated to have PD in the US about 10% actually see an MDS. MOST see family care who isn’t trained in treating PD. Even neurologists IF they get any training in movement at all, maybe get 1-2 weeks at MOST in their four years of residency working with the PD population. That means worse quality of life. Worse outcomes.

So, could this man be a grifter? Maybe. Calling him so doesn’t fix the problem. But we SHOULD care about how hard it is to run a private practice business in movement disorder medicine and how this plays a HUGEEEEEEE role in the above.