Epidemiology of Parkinson's Disease and Current Concepts of Outpatient Care in Germany

The ambulatory care of patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) in Germany has been established for a long time. As the prevalence of Parkinson's disease continues to increase, the outpatient neurological sector is becoming more and more important and needs to adapt itself to current needs. This includes an optimization of the care structures for Parkinson's patients as well as adequate concepts for the execution of differentiated diagnostics and therapy. For many patients care is provided by non-specialized neurological practices or general practitioners, without exchange of views with neurologists or a specialized university outpatient clinic for movement disorders. A connective link between these care structures could be provided by a practice with focus on Parkinson's disease, whose idea and conception is presented in this article. In addition to the necessity and usefulness of such an institution, structural prerequisites and basic principles for the treatment of Parkinsonian patients in a disease state-centered manner will be presented but also current limitations of the concept are pointed out. This article presents the results of an expert workshop on Parkinson's disease, which took place in Frankfurt am Main on 21 November 2015.