Cleveland Clinic summit names Top 10 medical innovations predicted for 2010

Jay Alberts, a biomedical engineer at the Cleveland Clinic, noticed his bicycling partners with Parkinson's had no symptoms after pedaling faster than they usually did on a tandem bike. Albert's subsequent research bore out his hunch, and the Clinic will recognize his work as one of the Top 10 medical innovations for 2010. (Plain Dealer photo by Chuck Crow).

 

By Kaye Spector
Health and Medical Reporter, The Plain Dealer 

 Sometimes innovation arrives on a bicycle.

That's how it came to biomedical engineer Jay Alberts, whose research into treating Parkinson's Disease symptoms is being recognized today by the Cleveland Clinic as one of the Top 10 medical innovations for 2010.

Alberts' research and the rest of the breakthrough devices and therapies will be announced at 11 a.m. at the Clinic's 2009 Medical Innovation Summit, which concludes this afternoon.

Alberts is a serious cyclist whose inspiration for treating Parkinson's came while participating in two, seven-day, 400-some-mile bike rides in Iowa to raise money for the disease, a neurological disorder that results in resting tremors, slowness of movement and limb rigidity.

In 2003, Alberts noticed that after the day's ride ended, his tandem partner, who has Parkinson's, stopped trembling enough to write clearly. After a 50-mile leg of the 2006 ride with a different partner, Alberts observed that the partner's symptoms were virtually gone.

When Alberts returned to Ohio, he decided to find out why. In a randomized, controlled study released about six months ago, he discovered that Parkinson's patients who rode with a trainer pedaling at 80 to 90 rpms -- a level beyond what they would choose on their own -- for an hour, three times a week showed 35 percent improvement in motor function.

Alberts' pedaling regimen lessens symptoms up to four weeks. He theorizes that the intervention might change brain function. The cycling also is empowering for patients, allowing them to actively manage their disease.

Alberts is now into a second study with Clinic collaborators Drs. Michael Phillips and Mark Lowe, and the initial results look promising.

All from a bike ride.

"To me, it's about always being aware of what's potentially out there," Alberts said. "It illustrates that as a scientist, we don't just find answers in the lab."