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Background : “Hub of Talents: Parkinson's Disease”

       Human daily life critically depends on the nervous system, which primarily functions as the body's control center for movement. Therefore, the study of human movement is important and has a profound influence on human functioning, encompassing both voluntary and automatic movements. Examples of voluntary movements include sitting, standing, walking, eating, and speaking. In contrast, automatic movements include postural control, movements that occur during sleep, breathing, and blinking. Difficulties or limitations in bodily movement significantly impact an individual's quality of life, social participation, and economic burden. Accordingly, studying human movement is crucial and serves as a prototype for learning that leads to the science of analyzing gait, balance, and other abnormal movements. 

      Currently, the incidence of abnormal movement problems is notably high, particularly among the elderly, as the global population transitions toward an aging society. In the future, the elderly will represent a major and growing proportion of the population in virtually every country. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), out of a global population exceeding seven billion, more than 200 million people experience problems related to walking and movement, most are over 15 years old, and the incidence rises with advancing age. Consequently, providing multidisciplinary care for movement disorders becomes essential for comprehensive assessment and holistic treatment.

      Importantly, movement disorders are not limited to Parkinson's disease but encompass various other normal and abnormal human movement patterns. This broad scope means that the study of movement offers benefits beyond medical treatment, but also supports movement assessment in other disciplines such as sports science. For these reasons, research, evaluation, and clinical care in human movement require the participation of professionals from multiple disciplines working together to develop integrated, holistic management strategies that address all relevant problems appropriately and effectively. The diversity of expertise and perspectives contributed by each discipline will substantially enhance service development and improve outcomes in movement-related health care.

     Each multidisciplinary professional brings a distinct perspective. For instance, medical professionals view movement from the standpoint of diagnosing and treating abnormal movement. Nursing professionals consider movement in terms of providing nursing guidance to improve patients’ quality of life. Physical therapists may approach movement from the perspective of rehabilitating muscle and joint function, while allied health professionals emphasize the development of assistive devices and adaptive tools that help patients maintain daily living activities and enhance quality of life. Meanwhile, engineers examine movement from the perspective of biomechanics or biophysics, providing quantitative indicators that can be utilized in the development of innovative devices and assessment technologies. Architects, on the other hand, consider movement in the context of designing environments and living spaces that support safe mobility and prevent accidents caused by abnormal movement. Therefore, having a team of multidisciplinary experts working together is essential to expanding and enhancing holistic care for human movement to achieve maximum benefits. International examples of successful multidisciplinary collaboration include the Human Motor Control Section at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), United States, and the MRC Human Movement and Balance Unit at the Institute of Neurology, London, United Kingdom. These institutions have achieved significant success in advancing research on human movement and providing patient care for movement disorders through multidisciplinary cooperation.

       However, Thailand currently lacks an institute or medical center that offers comprehensive, multidisciplinary assessment and diagnostic services for human movement. This gap has led to the establishment of the Hub of Talents: Parkinson’s Disease. This initiative marks a significant step forward in consolidating collaboration among multidisciplinary teams from both national and international organizations. The Hub will offer integrated human movement care, working collaboratively to maximize the benefits in the prevention and treatment of human movement disorders.

The Hub of Talents: Parkinson’s Disease is committed to fostering lasting and sustainable multidisciplinary collaboration based on the following operational principles:

1. Organizing conferences and establishing national and international multidisciplinary expert groups to address critical national public health issues, and to further enhance the country's competitiveness in developing health innovations for patients with Parkinson's disease and other movement disorders.

2. Disseminating new knowledge on human movement from multidisciplinary research to the public for widespread application in the treatment of movement disorders. This includes, for instance, the early detection of Parkinson's disease, fall prevention strategies, and facilitating mobility in the elderly.

3. Applying new knowledge from human movement research to prevent and treat movement disorders, adapting these approaches to Thailand's aging society, and making them suitable for the broader ASEAN community.

4. Commercializing new knowledge from multidisciplinary human movement research to develop practical innovations for widespread use among the elderly. This includes, for example, developing a proactive national digital platform for Parkinson's patient care, which will serve as a model for preventing and slowing the progression of non-communicable chronic diseases in Thailand. Another example is adapting vibration measurement tools to create various devices for measuring movement, gait, or falls in the elderly in their daily lives.