Students organize to shake up Parkinson's care model

University of Cincinnati student and Parkinson's Together founder Mallika Desai joined the Parkinson's Experience Podcast to discuss the nonprofit's origins and multidisciplinary mission to meet the needs of patients in their community.

The organization began in October 2021 with a core group of students who primarily were studying medicine. But as more students from other areas of study joined, new opportunities for different programs emerged.

"In their voices, I could hear that they wanted to do something that was beyond like what we could do as just sitting and giving [patients] company, which is very meaningful," Desai told the Parkinson's Experience Podcast. "But it was almost like how do I help in this helpless situation?"

The organization has taken a multidisciplinary, collaborative approach utilizing the strengths of each member's area of study. Pre-law undergraduate students can research and educate patients on inequities and their legal rights regarding the link between exposure to pesticides and the development of Parkinson’s disease. Pre-medical students are conducting research on topics including how telemedicine and exercise can help manage the disease and improve quality of life.

Engineering students participated in a hackathon this spring to design solutions that optimize patients’ living space and routines that have been altered due to the disease. Political science majors can study and increase advocacy to local, state and federal government officials promoting policies that improve the lives of patients with Parkinson’s.

"We realized that we were in a really great place in terms of our location," Desai said. "We’re situated inside a university, so we have access to professors who are doing cutting edge research in all of these fields. We have access to students of many different disciplines. And it helps that Cincinnati is very community driven and we found a lot of individual pockets of Parkinson’s communities."

Listen to the Parkinson's Experience Podcast.

Read more about Parkinson's Together.

Featured photo at top of Mallika Desai. Photo/Andrew Higley/UC Marketing + Brand.