NCH hosts Michael J. Fox Show viewing party to raise awareness of Parkinson's disease
ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. (September 19, 2013) – Northwest Community Healthcare (NCH) is hosting a viewing party for the September 26 television premiere of “The Michael J. Fox Show” to help raise awareness of Parkinson's disease, a progressive disorder of the nervous system that affects movement.
The viewing party begins at 6 p.m. on Thursday, September 26, at the NCH Auditorium, 800 W. Central Road, Arlington Heights, with a showing of a documentary on Parkinson's disease, “Just Around the Corner.” Beginning at 8 p.m., attendees will watch the Michael J. Fox Show, which stars the namesake actor who is juggling his career as a news anchor with the challenges of living with Parkinson's disease.
NCH is partnering with local resident David Slania, who was diagnosed with Parkinson's in 2006. Slania works with the Michael J. Fox Foundation, a not-for-profit organization that raises funds for developing a cure and improving therapies for patients with Parkinson's. The Foundation asked people around the country to host parties for the show's premiere.
NCH is among a select group of Illinois hospitals with imaging exams for Parkinson's disease. Doctors at NCH can better evaluate patients with suspected Parkinson's symptoms with a DaTscan brain imaging procedure. During the procedure, the patient receives a DaTscan injection and undergoes a brain scan that looks for dopamine – a chemical lacking in Parkinson's patients that is visually highlighted by the injection.
NCH's department of nuclear medicine is a DaTscan Imaging Center of Excellence. Doctors have administered the DaTscan procedure for 23 patients in 2013.
# # #
About Northwest Community Healthcare (NCH)
Serving Chicago's northwest suburbs since 1959, NCH is a comprehensive, patient-centered system of care that serves more than 350,000 outpatients each year, as well as nearly 30,000 inpatients treated annually at the 496-bed acute care hospital in Arlington Heights. The award-winning hospital holds the prestigious Magnet designation for nursing excellence, is designated as a Primary Stroke Center, earned the Joint Commission's Gold Seal of Approval in 2011, and was awarded the Leapfrog Group's designation as one of the nation's Top Hospitals based on quality and safety criteria. NCH has four Immediate Care locations in the northwest suburbs and operates a FastCare Clinic in Palatine. NCH has a medical staff of more than 1,000 physicians, which includes the board-certified primary care doctors and specialists of the NCH Medical Group. For more information or to find a doctor on the NCH Medical staff, visit www.nch.org.