RANDOLPH — The Nuclear Medicine team at Gifford Medical Center in Randolph are offering a new test, DaTscan, to help diagnosis tremor in patients.
DaTscan helps a physician confirm diagnosis by distinguishing Parkinson’s disease or other “parkinsonian” syndromes from essential tremor, a nervous system disorder characterized by rhythmic shaking.
The test may be ordered when patients have mild or atypical symptoms that do not match the diagnostic criteria for either condition, or when symptoms overlap or resemble those of different movement disorders.
“The test is most useful if the appearance of the tremor is atypical and the diagnosis is not straightforward,” Gifford neurologist Dr. Robin Schwartz said in a news release. “Often the examination is enough to make this diagnosis, but in situations in which there is confusion, the scan becomes useful. There can be a small chance of false positive and false negative, as with any test, but it can be very helpful if the diagnosis of tremor is in question.”
Without the test, patients might have to wait for their symptoms to progress before receiving clinical diagnosis, Gifford Nuclear Medicine Supervisor Tera Benson said.
“It is pretty exciting that we are able to offer this test locally, here at Gifford,” Benson said.
NORWICH — The public is invited to a screening of Extremis, a documentary film about end-of-life decisions, and a panel discussion about advanced care planning on National Healthcare Decisions Day, which is April 16.
The free event will take place at Tracy Hall, 300 Main St., Norwich, at 5 p.m. Cristine Maloney, hospice medical director for Vermont Visiting Nurse and Hospice, will lead the discussion about advanced planning and the process of formalizing end-of-life wishes.
COLCHESTER, Vt. — The OneCare Vermont accountable care organization has appointed six new members to its board of managers, including the CEO of Gifford Health Care and a Dartmouth-Hitchcock official.
Dan Bennett, who is also president of Randolph-based Gifford, will serve on the board of OneCare, which was created in 2013 by Dartmouth-Hitchcock and the University of Vermont Medical Center.
Also named to the board was Dr. Sally Kraft, the vice president of population health at Dartmouth-Hitchcock. Other appointees were Thomas Dee, president and CEO of Southwestern Vermont Health Care, Dr. Joseph Haddock, a primary care physician in Williston, Vt.; Tomasz Jankowski, the CEO of Northeast Kingdom Human Services, and Grant Whitmer, the executive director of Community Health Centers of the Rutland Region.
— Compiled by Kelly Burch