The UR-Udall Center's Clinical Core has the capability to conduct remote assessments nationally and in- person assessments locally. For a decade, the Core's investigators have pioneered the use of video visits to conduct phenotypic assessments of individuals with PD and other neurodegenerative conditions. These efforts have involved novel partners, including 23andMe, pharmaceutical companies, and the Michael J. Fox Foundation. The largest effort connected 166 participants with PD in 39 states all to a single research ?site.? The Core will use simple, secure video conference software and inexpensive web cameras to support Project 2 and enable the first virtual, national longitudinal study of LRRK2 carriers with and without PD. The Clinical Core also has extensive experience conducting in-person assessments to evaluate the relationship between traditional measures and those conducted with novel sensors, including smartphones and wearable sensors that are part of Projects 3 and 4. In addition, the Clinical Core and its outstanding partners can recruit research participants nationally and internationally. In one smartphone study, over 15,000 individuals nationally enrolled in seven months, and in another, we recruited 1600 participants from ~13 countries. The Clinical Core will be led by Dr. Giovanni Schifitto, a NIH-funded investigator who has helped lead multiple large scale clinical research efforts, and will be supported by a cadre of junior and senior clinical investigators with extensive experience conducting remote and in-person research evaluations. The Core will also include John Wilbanks, the Chief Commons Officer at Sage Bionetworks and one of the country's leading thinkers and practitioners of informed consent, to help guide the Center's multiple remote studies. Supported by experts in project and data management, the Clinical Core is poised to be an outstanding resource for the UR-Udall Center, the network of Udall Centers, and the broader PD community.
