NCH’s viewing party to raise awareness of Parkinson’s disease

Northwest Community Healthcare is hosting a viewing party for the Sept. 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. Thursday, Sept. 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 nonprofit 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.

For more information or to find a doctor on the NCH Medical staff, visit www.nch.org.