Clinical Services
The ASMDG provides comprehensive care that caters to patients with Parkinson’s disease and movement Disorders across all platforms, including outpatient services (two clinics per week), in-patient services (including botulinum toxin injection), and virtual services. Our group is a pioneer in establishing advanced therapies for movement disorders, particularly deep brain stimulation in collaboration with the Ain Shams neurosurgery department. Moreover, our group provides support for patients with movement disorders and promotes awareness of different diseases of movement disorders to the general population — especially Parkinson’s disease — through media, patient education, and activities.
Education
Our group provides annual clinical training and education for Egyptian and non-Egyptian physicians. Moreover, we have organized several national and international educational activities (preceptorships, courses, and workshops), conducted virtually and in person, to cover various topics in the rapidly evolving specialty of movement disorders. Our group organized the 1st MDS Africa Movement Disorders School for Neurologists in Cairo in 2019. On the virtual platform, we have created and organized the innovative MDS-AS multicenter yearly webinar that has been in operation since 2020, along with the interactive fundamental movement disorders course running since 2021. The ASMDG continues to collaborate with national and international societies, particularly MDS, to organize educational activities that provide the most up-to-date knowledge in the field. Recently, our group participated in the MDS Center-to-Center Program as a mentor center and has been hosting African colleagues through the Visiting Trainee Grant Program.
Research
ASMDG conducts scientific research on several aspects of Parkinson’s disease and movement disorders in Egypt, as well as participates in multicentric studies in collaboration with continental and international centers across the world. Currently, our group is part of several national and international research projects and is undertaking long-term projects and drug trials for movement disorders.
In the past few years, the group members have authored multiple international publications in high-ranked journals, and its members were awarded several national awards for their scientific contributions. Areas of interest include PD (non-motor aspects and biomarkers), dystonia, essential tremors, DBS, pediatric movement disorders, telemedicine, and neurocognition. Moreover, we led two projects in collaboration with African colleagues to identify the availability of PD therapies and education in African countries and have recently published our work in the Movement Disorders journal.
Ali Shalash, a professor of neurology at Ain Shams University, is the chair of ASMDG. He is also the chair of MDS-African Section Education Committee, a member of MDS-AS Executive Committee, and the vice chair of the movement disorders chapter of the Egyptian Society of Neurology. Moreover, he is a member of different MDS study groups and task forces and has led several research projects and educational activities in Egypt and Africa.
ASMDG is a well-established and promising group in Africa, having experts with international contributions and representation, providing specialized health services for movement disorder patients, and organizing educational activities and training for physicians. Collaboration with MDS has had a monumental impact on the role played by ASMDG through fostering its development, endorsing its different activities, and helping it achieve its full potential. Despite limited resource availability, ASMDG is considered an example of a flourishing, successful movement disorders group thriving in one of the developing countries.