Mission Statement
The World Parkinson Coalition Inc. is a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing an international forum for the latest scientific discoveries, medical practices and caregiver initiatives related to Parkinson's disease. By bringing physicians, scientists, allied health professionals, caregivers and people with Parkinson's disease together, we hope to create a worldwide dialogue that will help expedite the discovery of a cure and best treatment practices for this devastating disease.
Purpose
To ensure that this mission is achieved, the WPC will make every effort to engage and draw upon resources from the domestic and international PD communities to create a venue for discussing and learning about:basic scientific research that is helping to advance our understanding of the origins and development of the disease itself, translational and clinical science that will help slow the progression of the disease and ease its impact on those with Parkinson's models of care delivery that can assure the best possible quality of life for people with Parkinson's, their families and caregivers, national and international approaches to curing Parkinson's -- including government, professional societies and voluntary associations representing patients and families -- that can help build a sustained worldwide effort to better understand, combat and ultimately conquer Parkinson's disease.
The official language of the Congress is English. World Parkinson Congresses are open to citizens of ALL countries.
History The World Parkinson Coalition Inc. was first formed as a nonprofit organization in 2004 under the name World Parkinson Congress Inc. The name change came in 2008 after the WPC leadership felt it was important to separate the name of the organization that designs and hosts each triennial Congress from the actual event itself.
The idea for the WPCs came up at a meeting in 2002 in Washington, DC. Dr. Elias Zerhouni, the then head of the National Institutes of Health asked some of the leaders in the community why such a meeting did not exist at the time and suggested that they consider hosting one. He planted the seed and it was Robin Elliott, Executive Director of the US based Parkinson's Disease Foundation (PDF) who approached Dr. Stanley Fahn with the idea and suggested that if Dr. Fahn would help launch the new nonprofit and head the group as the President, that PDF would help with the initial legwork to get the new organization off the ground.
In 2004, the organization gained it's nonprofit status, hired it first member of staff, and worked with nearly 60 volunteer committee members to design and plan the first WPC which was held in February 2006 in Washington, DC. The program design in 2006 was led by Howard Federoff, MD, PhD from Georgetown University. The first WPC was deemed a success with over 3,150 delegates so plans immediately began for designing the hosting the second WPC to be held in September/October 2010 in Glasgow, Scotland. In 2010, the program design was led by Ted Dawson, MD, PhD from John's Hopkins University. More than 80 volunteer committee members worked to make WPC 2010 a success with more than 3,000 delegates coming from nearly 70 countries for the congress.
The WPC 2013 is in progress and will hopefully make history. The program design is under the leadership of Serge Przedborski, MD, PhD from New York, NY, USA with co-chairs Oscar Gershanik, MD from Buenos Aires, Argentina, Bastiaan Bloem, MD, PhD from the Netherlands, and Israel Robledo, from Texas, USA. More than 100 volunteers are working to make the WPC 2013 a success.
For the first time, the WPC is relying on Ambassadors. The 12 inaugural WPC 2013 Ambassadors come from eight countries and all but one are people living with Parkinson's. This incredible group of WPC supporters is working tirelessly to promote the WPC, raise awareness about Parkinson's, collect signatures for the Global Parkinson's Pledge and encourage people to attend the WPC 2013.
We hope you will join us in October 2013 at the 3rd WPC to help us make history, once again.
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