The OPTIM-PARK project, in which UAM researchers participate, advances in its goal of helping Parkinson's patients

Four European countries (United Kingdom –coordinator-, Denmark, Norway and Spain) participate in the research project OPTIM-PARK funded by the EU Joint Program - Neurodegenerative Disease Research (JPND) which aims to optimize the use of resources and improve the process of living with Parkinson's disease (PD). The Spanish team has three researchers from the Autonomous University of Madrid (UAM): doctors Ana Palmar, Azucena Pedraz and Victoria Navarta, together with two researchers from the Movement Disorders Unit of the Department of Neurology of the Hospital Universitario de La Princesa, Dr. Lydia López and Beatriz Gonzalez.

The OPTIM-PARK Project ( Optimization of community resources and support systems to improve the process of living with Parkinson's disease: a multisectoral interventionas well as the lack of provision of individualized information on essential resources and services to improve the quality of life of people with PD. For this reason, in the second phase of this project, work is being done to design a multisectoral intervention that allows us to respond to these challenges in order to increase the health and emotional well-being of people with PD and their family caregivers.

The meetings held, in which researchers from the four countries have worked, have made it possible to identify some of the elements that should be integrated in the future multisectoral intervention, which will be evaluated in a feasibility and acceptability study during the year 2022. It is expected that this This work allows us to identify strategic lines of action that can improve the quality and efficiency of the social and health services and community provided to people with PD and their families, and in the future to people with other chronic diseases.

Photo: The UAM team of researchers working on the OPTIM-PARK project to help Parkinson's patients / UAM