2nd International Tremor Congress: From Bench to Bedside Towards Tremor Therapy

2nd International Tremor Congress: From Bench to Bedside Towards Tremor Therapy is organized by Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons (VP&S) and will be held from Jun 12 - 13, 2020 at Roy and Diana Vagelos Education Center, New York City, New York, United States of America. This Conference has been approved for a maximum of 10.75 AMA PRA Category 1 Credits™.

Description:
Tremor is the most common movement disorder and can be highly disabling. Despite recent advancements in the diagnosis and management, patients with tremor continue to live with tremor-related disability. Current technology has created an opportunity for new diagnostic approaches, surgical procedures, and pharmacologic innovations, which holds promise for treatment of tremor. In addition, the understanding of abnormalities of brain circuitry for tremor will guide us for the development of targeted therapy. Taken together, these advances in the clinical diagnosis and patient management and also the basic science of brain circuitry of tremor will synergistically bring us to the forefront of therapy development for tremor.

In addition, there are several tremor disorders. Essential tremor is characterized by kinetic tremor whereas Parkinson’s tremor is classically tremor at rest. Dystonia tremor is less rhythmic and is usually associated with sustained muscle twisting movements. Ataxic tremor is associated with cerebellar ataxia and gait imbalance. Therefore, the accurate diagnosis of tremor disorder also poses challenges to neurologists and movement disorders specialists. Neurologists must stay up-to-date on advances in all aspects of patient care, but, unfortunately, many rely on what they learned in medical school or residency.

Moreover, the recent advances in the genetics, pathology, and physiology of tremor disorders, we begin to understand that each tremor disorder has distinct yet over-lapping clinical characteristics and underlying pathomechanism. Emerging molecular and physiological understanding of tremor has recently led investigators to envision some common pathogenic mechanisms with possible shared therapeutic approaches. However, research efforts among investigators are often isolated and there is a demand for better communication and collaborations among scientists and clinicians so that therapeutic targets will be rapidly translated into clinical trials, and the pipeline therapy development will enter robustly designed trials. Given these important challenges in the field, a need to bring together movement disorders specialists who diagnose and manage tremor patients and also basic scientists who study the abnormal brain circuits of tremor is critically important to advance the field. In addition, there is a need to educate the next-generation clinicians and scientists in the knowledge of tremor and to inspire the next-generation to go into tremor field.

To address these gaps, the Movement Disorders Division within the Department of Neurology of the Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons will be conducting 2nd International Tremor Congress, a comprehensive meeting on advances in the diagnosis and management of tremor and also the science of tremor disorders. The meeting addresses an important need for a comprehensive, academic educational program providing the latest information on innovations, insights on the latest science, and translation of the science to patient care. The conference is also consistent with the national call of the Precision Medicine Initiative for health care providers to pursue new approaches that tailor treatment to the individual patient’s characteristics because patient response to conventional treatments for tremor is often variable; therefore, education on new surgical and medical advancements that account for individual differences can optimize outcomes for patients with tremor. In addition, to understand the heterogeneity of tremor disorders will help to design and conduct robust clinical trials to push forward therapy development.

Objectives:
At the conclusion of this activity, participants will be better able to:
• Formulate an evidence-based approach to optimize the treatment for tremor disorders.
• Develop evidence-based scientific knowledge for the future clinical study design in tremor disorders.
• Describe the up-do-date clinical diagnosis and treatment in each tremor disorder.
• Indicate the cutting-edge scientific discovery for tremor and also current tremor therapy development.