Educational Events

Mindfulness Monday - Awareness of Thoughts

Virtual ( Zoom )
1:00 pm to 1:30 pm EST
Free
Woman sitting on the couch drinking coffee

We all think. Mindfulness won’t stop our thoughts, but it can change our relationship to them. In this session, we’ll explore how to notice habitual thinking patterns—especially those tied to worry, self-criticism, or uncertainty about Parkinson’s—and learn to release what no longer serves us. A guided meditation will help cultivate calm focus and clarity.

Speaker

Devon Hase
Author & Meditation Teacher

There is no charge to attend, but registration is required. This program is open to people with Parkinson's, their family, friends, and the community.

PD Health @ Home is presented by the Light of Day Foundation, whose generosity has made this programming possible.

Light of Day

This is a virtual program, taking place live, using the online Zoom platform. Instructions on joining the webinar are provided after registering.

Upcoming Events

Educational Events

Mindfulness Mondays - Minding the Mind

In this session, we will learn how to notice common difficult habits of the mind, to pause, and then to mindfully return to a better place.  As we do so, we give ourselves the best chance of choosing a better next step.

Virtual
Educational Events

2026 Georgia Chapter Ambassador Retreat

Georgia Chapter Ambassador Retreat | July 31–August 1, Atlanta, GA. Join fellow Parkinson’s Foundation ambassadors for a weekend of connection, learning, collaboration, and planning as we celebrate our impact and prepare for the year ahead.

Atlanta, GA
Educational Events

La EP avanzada: alucinaciones, delirios y otros síntomas no motores

Virtual ( Zoom )
1:00 pm to 2:00 pm EST
Gratis
Una pareja mirando una tableta juntos en su porche

Regístrese Aquí

A medida que la enfermedad de Parkinson progresa, las personas pueden experimentar cambios que van más allá del movimiento, incluidos síntomas no motores como cambios en el pensamiento, el estado de ánimo y los delirios. Este webinar explorará estos síntomas, con especial atención a las alucinaciones, e incluirá consejos sobre cómo responder con empatía cuando alguien que usted conoce o cuida experimenta una alucinación. El programa también abordará conceptos erróneos sobre las alucinaciones y cuándo es conveniente hablar sobre las opciones de tratamiento con un proveedor de atención médica.


La conversación también analizará cómo la cultura, la familia y la comunidad influyen en la forma en que se comprenden y manejan estos síntomas, con el fin de ayudar a los participantes a sentirse mejor preparados para apoyarse a sí mismos o a un ser querido.
 

10 a.m. hora del Pacífico (Los Ángeles)
11 a.m. hora de la Montaña (Colorado, Phoenix y Nuevo México)
12 p.m. hora del Centro (Texas y Ciudad de México)
1 p.m. hora del Este (Nueva York , Peru y Colombia)
2 p.m. hora de Venezuela
3 p.m. hora de Chile y Argentina
7 p.m. hora de España

*Por favor, verifica su zonas horarias.*

Presentadora

Beatriz Elena Muñoz Ospina, PhD
Neuropsicóloga
Fundación Valle del Lili

¿Busca algo más? Podrá encontrar todos nuestros videos de EP Salud en Casa en YouTube.


Más información:

Todos los eventos de “EP Salud en Casa" – Parkinson.org/EPSalud.

Una lista de nuestros recursos en español – Parkinson.org/Recursos

Línea de Ayuda – 1-800-473-4636, opción 3 para español.

EP Salud En Casa es presentado por Light of Day Foundation, cuya generosidad ha hecho posible esta programación.

Light of Day

Upcoming Events

Educational Events

Mindfulness Mondays - Minding the Mind

In this session, we will learn how to notice common difficult habits of the mind, to pause, and then to mindfully return to a better place.  As we do so, we give ourselves the best chance of choosing a better next step.

Virtual
Educational Events

2026 Georgia Chapter Ambassador Retreat

Georgia Chapter Ambassador Retreat | July 31–August 1, Atlanta, GA. Join fellow Parkinson’s Foundation ambassadors for a weekend of connection, learning, collaboration, and planning as we celebrate our impact and prepare for the year ahead.

Atlanta, GA
Advancing Research

Artificial Intelligence is Unlocking New Possibilities for Parkinson’s Care

🧠 What will you learn in this article?

This article is based on a Parkinson’s Foundation Expert Briefing about how Parkinson’s disease (PD) care and research are leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) technology. It highlights how: 

  • AI is becoming a useful support tool in PD care, helping with tasks like documenting visits and tracking symptoms.
  • People with Parkinson’s can use AI tools to better understand symptoms, medications and next steps after appointments, though it’s important to protect privacy. 
  • To maximize your PD-related AI conversations. 
  • Apps, wearables and symptom-tracking tools combined with AI may help personalize care.
  • Researchers are using AI to accelerate Parkinson’s discoveries.
Woman using laptop

Artificial intelligence (AI) technology is shaping how healthcare information is shared and used, including for people living with Parkinson’s disease (PD). Discover the value of AI tools, how to engage with them responsibly and why your care team’s guidance and judgment remain essential to high-quality care.

This article is based on a Parkinson’s Foundation Expert Briefing hosted by movement disorders specialist and clinical informaticist Allan D. Wu, MD, at Northwestern Medicine Parkinson's Disease and Movement Disorders Center, a Parkinson’s Foundation Center of Excellence.

Making Thoughtful Use of Smart Technology

Artificial intelligence has rapidly cemented itself as a supportive tool to enhance human expertise and provide people with around-the-clock access to healthcare information. However, people are wary that AI may weaken relationships between doctors and patients or chatbots may provide inaccurate answers. A 2025 YouGov poll found more than half of Americans were cautious or skeptical of AI, even as a 2025 Gallup poll found 99% of U.S. adults used an AI-enabled product weekly and 57% used generative AI for personal purposes.

Healthcare experts remain cautious, too. Lessons from the nationwide rollout of electronic health records (EHR) showed that new technology can create added burdens. Many EHR systems didn’t work well together, focused heavily on paperwork and billing and increased demands and burnout for doctors without improving patient care.

The rapidly expanding field of clinical informatics emphasizes using AI to enhance and support — not replace — human care. Physicians certified in this field use their expertise in medicine and technology to help improve healthcare systems and patient care, serving as a connection between technology and patient care.

About AI 

AI includes rule-based systems, statistical models, machine learning and deep learning, which are used in healthcare for documentation, pattern detection and prediction.

AI tools in healthcare can document visits, draft records for physician review, identify patient risks, support research or help manage patient communications. People have the right to ask where their health data is going and how it will be handled, or to opt out of AI-powered recording and documentation of healthcare visits.

AI processes and applies information in different ways:

  • Ambient AI, with patient consent, can capture patient-doctor conversations, freeing doctors to focus on face-to-face interactions.
  • Generative AI can transcribe medical conversations into visit records for the doctor to review and approve. 
  • Predictive AI commonly uses machine learning models to look at large data volumes to spot patterns and predict outcomes. In healthcare, it might be used to help identify a patient’s potential health risks. In research, it is being used for everything from drug development to the analysis of genetic data.

How People Are Using AI as a Healthcare Partner 

Many people are familiar with AI chat platforms and assistants – these use large language models trained on massive amounts of written and spoken data to simulate human conversation. They are trained to learn from interactions to deliver accurate, personalized responses.

People can leverage AI tools to:

  • Explain PD symptoms, diagnoses or medications. For example, Ask PAM (Parkinson’s Assistance Messenger) is an AI-powered chat tool from the Parkinson’s Foundation that provides trusted, evidence-based answers about Parkinson’s at your fingertips.
  • Understand medical bills or insurance benefits.
  • Organize next steps after a healthcare visit.

While AI can be helpful, use caution when using it: 

  • Protect your privacy. Never provide sensitive information.
  • AI can sometimes reinforce incorrect ideas.
  • AI does not understand accountability or moral responsibility.
  • AI can present false information as fact. It can also present biased information.
  • Be wary of “AI slop” low-quality content generated without human effort.

How to Maximize Your PD-related AI Conversations

Get the most reliable information when working with AI:

  • State the goal. “Help me prepare for my doctor appointment.” 
  • Provide background: “I was diagnosed 6 years ago. I have tremor dominant Parkinson’s. I am taking carbidopa/levodopa. My tremor has worsened over time.”
  • Specify resources. “Reference the Parkinson’s Foundation guide to Preparing for a Medial Appointment.”
  • Explain how you want the message delivered: “Give me a short, bulleted list in plain language.”
  • Ask for broad perspectives. “You are a Parkinson’s expert.” Or “What perspective and questions might my neurologist, physical therapist, social worker, psychologist or family members have?” 
  • Ask for pros and cons, alternatives and multiple options.
  • Save your work. AI conversations are often temporary. 

Sometimes, AI will ask questions for more context. This is best used when you aren’t sure what information you need. “I need to talk to my neurologist about deep brain stimulation. Before you respond, ask me questions you need to give me useful guidance.”

Other ways to guide output are to ask AI to at a sixth-grade level or to be concise. Ask it to review its response and where the answer could be improved.

The Potential for AI in PD Care

Woman looking at Smartwatch

People living with Parkinson's may find it difficult to accurately remember when symptoms occurred or how they changed over time. Symptom-tracking tools and wearables — including smartphone apps, Apple Watch-based tools and devices such as Personal KinetiGraph and StrivePD — are helping monitor symptoms over time. Other wearable technologies include devices that monitor cognition, tremor, freezing of gait, sleep and speech.

AI holds the promise to combine data from these devices with pre-visit surveys, Parkinson’s disease rating scales and patient diaries to help care teams develop personalized wellness plans that adapt as symptoms and needs change, and to assist in connecting people with relevant clinical trials.

Tech Tools for Daily Living

Explore apps and digital tools that can help you track symptoms and support daily life with Parkinson’s.

How AI Is Driving Deeper Insights into PD

Researchers are using AI to expand their understanding of Parkinson’s:

  • Bioinformatics, the use of AI to assist in analyzing biological information, is being harnessed in trials such as PD GENEration: Powered by the Parkinson’s Foundation, an international study offering genetic testing and counseling for people living with Parkinson’s at no cost.
  • AI and machine learning are helping process and interpret data from the Parkinson's Progression Markers Initiative (PPMI), a Michael J. Fox Foundation-sponsored study to identify and measure PD biomarkers — substances in the body that provide information about health.
  • Artificial intelligence is helping researchers discover biologic subtypes of Parkinson's by examining data from skin biopsies, genetic statistics and brain imaging. 
  • Alpha-synuclein is a brain chemical that misfolds and clumps in people with Parkinson’s. AI is helping researchers better understand the process and how it is linked to disease progression.
  • AI has the potential to help speed up new drug discoveries by identifying which compounds might target PD.

Emerging Developments

On the horizon, look for AI tools that:

  • Offer continuous passive monitoring of PD symptom patterns such as voice, gait and typing. 
  • Reach out when a wearable device signals a change.
  • Send adaptive medication reminders based on patterns of “on” times, when PD medication is working well, and “off” times, when symptoms return.
  • Provide AI symptom triage, assessing symptoms and suggesting next steps.
  • Automate creation of healthcare action items, referrals and automatic scheduling.

AI, along with PD GENEration and other research studies, is also laying the groundwork for precision medicine — the aim of tailoring treatment to fit the needs of everyone with Parkinson’s. It also holds the potential to further refine surgical planning and programming for DBS devices used to treat Parkinson’s symptoms. 

Learn More

Raise Awareness

Perspectivas profesionales: enfermedad de Parkinson de inicio temprano

🧠 ¿Qué aprenderá en este artículo?

Este artículo presenta un video con el Dr. Ignacio Mata, un neurogenetista, quien explica la enfermedad de Parkinson de inicio temprano (EOPD, por sus siglas en inglés). En él, destaca:

  • La serie única de desafíos que enfrentan las personas con EOPD.
  • Cómo afrontar un diagnóstico en una etapa temprana de la vida.
  • Recursos para ayudar a controlar los síntomas a medida que la enfermedad avanza.

La enfermedad de Parkinson de inicio temprano (EOPD) afecta a personas menores de 50 años de edad. Si bien los síntomas son similares a los de la enfermedad de Parkinson típica o de inicio tardío (EP), las personas diagnosticadas con la EOPD a menudo enfrentan un conjunto único de desafíos financieros, familiares y laborales.

Acompañe al Dr. Ignacio Mata, un neurogenetista de la Cleveland Clinic, un Centro de Excelencia de la Parkinson’s Foundation, quien comparte por qué las personas con síntomas de la EOPD pueden tener dificultades para recibir un diagnóstico, consejos para afrontar la EOPD y dónde buscar recursos y apoyo.

¿Por qué es importante identificar la enfermedad de Parkinson de inicio temprano?

La EOPD afecta aproximadamente al 4% de las 90,000 personas diagnosticadas con la EP cada año en los EE. UU. Las investigaciones muestran que las personas diagnosticadas con la EP a una edad más temprana tienen más probabilidades de tener un vínculo genético con la EP. Aproximadamente el 30% de las personas con la EOPD tienen un vínculo genético, en comparación con aproximadamente el 12% de aquellas con la EP típica o de inicio tardío.

Su equipo de atención puede recomendar pruebas genéticas para comprender mejor su diagnóstico. Identificar la EOPD y un vínculo genético puede ayudar a su equipo médico a personalizar mejor los planes de tratamiento, incluidas las estrategias para controlar los síntomas que toman en cuenta las responsabilidades laborales, de crianza y familiares.

Las personas con la EP pueden considerar participar en nuestro estudio genético, PD GENEration: Impulsado por la Parkinson’s Foundation, que ofrece pruebas genéticas y consejería sin costo para las personas que viven con Parkinson.

Obtenga más información sobre el Parkinson de inicio temprano y acceda a recursos ahora.

Educational Events

Mindfulness Mondays - Mental Wellbeing

Virtual ( Zoom )
1:00 pm to 1:30 pm EST
Free
Woman sitting on the couch drinking coffee

Each month, Dr. Rush invites you to slow down, breathe, and reconnect with yourself and your Parkinson’s community through a guided mindfulness practice. Together, we’ll explore simple ways to ground the body, calm the mind, and cultivate compassion and clarity that you can carry into your week.

Whether you’re new to mindfulness or a returning participant, these sessions are designed to be inclusive, supportive, and accessible for everyone. Find a comfortable place to sit, settle in, and experience how mindfulness can bring steadiness and space, even in the midst of change.

A brief time for questions and reflections will follow each practice.

Speaker

Taylor Rush, PhD
Health Psychologist, Director of Behavioral Services and Interdisciplinary Programs, Center for Neurological Restoration, Cleveland Clinic

There is no charge to attend, but registration is required. This program is open to people with Parkinson's, their family, friends, and the community.

PD Health @ Home is presented by the Light of Day Foundation, whose generosity has made this programming possible.

Light of Day

This is a virtual program, taking place live, using the online Zoom platform. Instructions on joining the webinar are provided after registering.

Upcoming Events

Educational Events

Mindfulness Mondays - Minding the Mind

In this session, we will learn how to notice common difficult habits of the mind, to pause, and then to mindfully return to a better place.  As we do so, we give ourselves the best chance of choosing a better next step.

Virtual
Educational Events

2026 Georgia Chapter Ambassador Retreat

Georgia Chapter Ambassador Retreat | July 31–August 1, Atlanta, GA. Join fellow Parkinson’s Foundation ambassadors for a weekend of connection, learning, collaboration, and planning as we celebrate our impact and prepare for the year ahead.

Atlanta, GA
Educational Events

Mindfulness Mondays - Mental Wellbeing

Virtual ( Zoom )
1:00 pm to 1:30 pm EST
Free
Woman sitting on the couch drinking coffee

Each month, Dr. Rush invites you to slow down, breathe, and reconnect with yourself and your Parkinson’s community through a guided mindfulness practice. Together, we’ll explore simple ways to ground the body, calm the mind, and cultivate compassion and clarity that you can carry into your week.

Whether you’re new to mindfulness or a returning participant, these sessions are designed to be inclusive, supportive, and accessible for everyone. Find a comfortable place to sit, settle in, and experience how mindfulness can bring steadiness and space, even in the midst of change.

A brief time for questions and reflections will follow each practice.

Speaker

Taylor Rush, PhD
Health Psychologist, Director of Behavioral Services and Interdisciplinary Programs, Center for Neurological Restoration, Cleveland Clinic

There is no charge to attend, but registration is required. This program is open to people with Parkinson's, their family, friends, and the community.

PD Health @ Home is presented by the Light of Day Foundation, whose generosity has made this programming possible.

Light of Day

This is a virtual program, taking place live, using the online Zoom platform. Instructions on joining the webinar are provided after registering.

Upcoming Events

Educational Events

Mindfulness Mondays - Minding the Mind

In this session, we will learn how to notice common difficult habits of the mind, to pause, and then to mindfully return to a better place.  As we do so, we give ourselves the best chance of choosing a better next step.

Virtual
Educational Events

2026 Georgia Chapter Ambassador Retreat

Georgia Chapter Ambassador Retreat | July 31–August 1, Atlanta, GA. Join fellow Parkinson’s Foundation ambassadors for a weekend of connection, learning, collaboration, and planning as we celebrate our impact and prepare for the year ahead.

Atlanta, GA
Educational Events

Mindfulness Mondays - Minding the Mind

Virtual ( Zoom )
1:00 pm to 1:30 pm EST
Free
Woman sitting on the couch drinking coffee

When our minds take us to non-resilient places (such as when we jump to conclusions, or let our emotions cloud our judgment), it helps to have a go-to move to bring them back to a calmer place.  

In this session, we will learn how to notice common difficult habits of the mind, to pause, and then to mindfully return to a better place.  As we do so, we give ourselves the best chance of choosing a better next step.

Speaker

Maria Sirois, PsyD
Psychologist, Consultant, Inspirational Speaker
Certificate in Appreciative Inquiry, Stiller School of Business

There is no charge to attend, but registration is required. This program is open to people with Parkinson's, their family, friends, and the community.

PD Health @ Home is presented by the Light of Day Foundation, whose generosity has made this programming possible.

Light of Day

This is a virtual program, taking place live, using the online Zoom platform. Instructions on joining the webinar are provided after registering.

Upcoming Events

Educational Events

Mindfulness Mondays - Minding the Mind

In this session, we will learn how to notice common difficult habits of the mind, to pause, and then to mindfully return to a better place.  As we do so, we give ourselves the best chance of choosing a better next step.

Virtual
Educational Events

2026 Georgia Chapter Ambassador Retreat

Georgia Chapter Ambassador Retreat | July 31–August 1, Atlanta, GA. Join fellow Parkinson’s Foundation ambassadors for a weekend of connection, learning, collaboration, and planning as we celebrate our impact and prepare for the year ahead.

Atlanta, GA
Videos & Webinars

Expert Briefing: Artificial Intelligence & Parkinson’s: Understanding the Promise & Pitfalls

May 13, 2026

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is increasingly shaping how health care information is shared and used—including for people living with Parkinson’s and their care partners. But what exactly is AI, and how does it differ from augmented intelligence, which is designed to support (not replace) human judgment?
 
In this Expert Briefing, our speaker will provide a clear, practical overview of AI’s role in the delivery of care for people with Parkinson’s. The session will explore how AI-enabled tools may influence communication, symptom tracking, and care personalization, and how individuals and care partners can engage with these tools responsibly.
 
The presentation will also address key legal and ethical considerations—such as privacy, accuracy, and over-reliance on technology—while emphasizing the ongoing importance of human connection in care.

Download Slides

Webinar Summary

Additional Resources

Presenter

Allan D. Wu, MD, FAAN
Parkinson’s Disease and Movement Disorders Center
Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, A Parkinson's Foundation Center of Excellence, Program Director, Northwestern Clinical Informatics Fellowship
Department of Pathology, Feinberg School of Medicine, Faculty Clinical Informatics Consultant
Stanley Manne Children’s Research Institute
Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago

My PD Story

George Eckenrode
People with PD

George Eckenrode

Imagine you have recently been diagnosed with a chronic disease and you are attending your first educational conference. You are sitting in a large room with several hundred people listening to a physician with a personal connection to this disease begin his presentation.

I felt a wave of hopelessness; I thought what possible good news could he offer me? I felt like leaving. But I didn’t leave, and I am glad I didn’t. 

My name is George Eckenrode. I am 76 years old, retired, married and have recently moved to Phoenix, AZ from Pennsylvania.  I am a father and a grandfather. I am here in Maricopa County because of these last facts: my wife and I have three grandchildren. And they live here!

Fortunately for me, Maricopa County is a Mecca for people with Parkinson’s disease (PD). It is blessed with the full range of PD services: caring compassionate healthcare providers of all disciplines and state of the art institutions dedicated to all aspects of chronic disease care (diagnosis, treatment, care, education, research and support).

PD Lessons Learned

In school I was taught when the planned lesson activity didn’t go well that all experiences are learning opportunities even if they are not planned. Life is like that too. Here are some things I didn’t expect to learn when I got PD.

  • I sleep funny. One question I was not expecting was: “Do you act out your dreams?” Turns out I do! I have Rapid Eye Movement Behavior Disorder (RBD) — and have since learned sleeping disorders are strongly predictive of PD.
  • I smell badly. Not my state of hygiene but my sense of smell. My wife was not surprised by my diminished sense of smell (discovered through a sniff test at my doctor’s office) as evidenced by her having to remind me to take the trash out.
  • I am very mood-y. I have had dysthymia (a form of depression) for years but I never knew I had anxiety till I learned I had PD. Even the depression took on a more negative flavor—that of apathy.
  • I don’t ever forget a face; it’s everything else I forget. I would like to think I just have “tip of the tongue” memory loss; but it’s a lot more. I have the slowness of recall. It doesn’t matter how recently I heard or even used the word. It just won’t come.
  • Welcome to orthostatic hypotension! Such a lovely expression for lightheadedness, isn’t it? I had noticed this for a while before I was diagnosed but I usually blamed it on other causes. What it really was caused by, is my PD.

There is a new person in my life: my “care partner."

I have known my wife for over 50 years. During that time, she has carried a list of monikers: my friend, my girlfriend, my wife, my financial support during grad school, and the mother of my children.

Now with the advent of my chronic illness, she has added one more title — that of care partner.

While most wedding vows still include the part about “in sickness and in health”, the arrival of a PD diagnosis changes that vow from a possibility to a certainty.  As with all other monikers she has carried, this position is again unpaid.

I like support groups — who knew?

Support groups have been a vital part of healthcare for decades now. My first neurologist in Phoenix recommended beginning an exercise program and mentioned a specific one in particular. Attending that exercise program opened the door to a world of PD support including joining a support group. It became clear to me after attending my first Parkinson’s support group that this group would play an important role in my life going forward.

It was a place to ask questions, questions no doctor could answer, unless, of course, he too had Parkinson’s. It was also a place to hear and tell stories and to hear and share information. And as its name indicates, a place to receive and offer support.

Things are changing but is it PD?

For those of us, like me, diagnosed in our seventh or eighth decade of life, we are often already experiencing some changes in our body’s functioning. The question then becomes: is this change (in hearing, bladder control, memory) PD-related or is it aging or something entirely different? 

Questioning is good, both at our doctor’s office as well as with our care partner and our support group. Questioning means we are paying attention, something we may not have been doing before the tip of the PD iceberg broke the surface.

Closing Thoughts

My wife is fond of making the following sound statement: “When you have met one person with PD, you have met one person with PD.” And now you have met one person with PD and what he has learned and continues to learn.

From exercise classes to support groups, find Parkinson’s resources near you.

My PD Story

Gary Gosselin
People with PD

Gary Gosselin

INTENT. Perseverance. You’re not alone.

I was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease (PD) in May 2020, right in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic. Like a lot of people, I don’t remember much of what the doctor actually said. I do remember walking out of there thinking, “OK, now what?”

Because I was adopted, I don’t have any family medical history to rely on. My mind went straight to my two sons and four grandchildren — what does this mean for them? I remember thinking I need to understand this, for them as much as for me.

Those first months were a bit of a blur. A lot of appointments, a lot of questions, and a lot of just trying to make sense of it.

Some mornings just took a little more to get going. Nothing dramatic — I’d sit for a minute before starting. Just taking a moment before the day began. Some days it was fatigue or just feeling a step behind — the kind of things people don’t really see.

That’s where one word started to matter: Perseverance. I had it written on a card on my file cabinet and I saw it every day. It wasn’t anything fancy, but it reminded me to keep moving forward, even when I didn’t have it all figured out.

A few years later, through the Parkinson Voice Project, I was introduced to another word: INTENT — living and speaking with purpose.

Those two words just clicked for me.

So, in 2024, I made a simple wristband — partly for myself, and partly to thank the people who had helped me along the way. I ordered just 10. INTENT on one side, Perseverance on the other.

That was it. No plan, no idea it would go anywhere. I put it on every morning. I started sharing them—and then people began to ask about them.

Then something happened that changed everything.

I was on a Parkinson’s Zoom call with a group from Boston, telling the story of the Resolve Band, when someone held one up. They had gotten it the day before through Parkinson Voice Project — one of the ones I had sent to Dallas to thank them for their project.

That’s when it hit me — this thing had taken on a life of its own. And the message was pretty simple: You’re not alone.

Since then, hundreds of bands have been made available to people with Parkinson’s disease, care partners and clinicians at no charge. It’s also led me into some advocacy work, which has been another way to stay connected and give something back.

For me, though, it still comes back to something simple. Focus on what you can control. Stay engaged. Keep moving forward. I’ve been lucky. I’ve got a great family who’s been with me every step of the way.

I’ve also had the chance to participate in research studies and clinical trials, including PD GENEration: Powered by the Parkinson's Foundation.

Participating in PD GENEration helped me understand what my diagnosis really meant — not just for me, but for my family. When I got the results back, I sat down and wrote an email to my two sons, my wife and other family members to walk them through it. That’s how important it felt to me. The process itself was straightforward, but more than anything, it felt like I was doing something that mattered — for them and for others down the road.

What I didn’t expect was how much that experience would carry forward. A few months later, I was in Washington, DC, at the Parkinson’s Policy Forum, meeting and advocating with my senators and congressman.

I shared this story — how PD GENEration gave my family clarity and relief — and how programs like it only exist because of the broader research infrastructure supported by non-profits like the Parkinson’s Foundation and the NIH.

For me, it wasn’t just participating in a study. It became something I could speak to —real experience, real impact — and use to advocate for continued investment in Parkinson’s research so more families can have that same clarity.

Participating in research and advocacy work has given me another way to stay engaged and give something back. What gives me hope is the community and the fact that things are moving in the right direction.

Gary Gosselin at the World Parkinson Congress 2026

I just returned two days ago from Phoenix, where I attended the World Parkinson Congress, where I gave out many English and Spanish wristbands and presented a poster abstract related to the Resolve Band and advocacy work.

If I had one thing to say to someone newly diagnosed, it would be this: Take a breath. You don’t have to solve this all at once. Just take the next step. That’s what I do.

Every day starts the same way—

With INTENT.

And with Perseverance.

Some days it’s just for me. Other days, it starts a conversation.

By joining PD GENEration study, participants can discover new knowledge about their genetics, understand their family’s risks and help benefit generations to come. Learn more and enroll today.

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