This year’s highly prestigious Fuerst Donnersmarck-Stiftung reseach award goes to Hannover Medical School. Awarded was the research of Mrs Heidrun Pickenbrock, MSc from the Movement Disorders Section, Department of Neurology, Hannover Medical School headed by Professor Dirk Dressler. Mrs Pickenbrock examined the influence of her special positioning technique on spasticity and vital parameters of severely affected bed-ridden patients. The results first published in Deutsches Ärzteblatt were received with much interest by the medical community. ‘For many years spasticity was neglected in acute neurology and neurological research,’ explains Professor Dressler. ‘We consider spasticity an important part of movement disorders. For this reason we invited Mrs Pickenbrock 5 years ago to join our team. Here she was pivotal in establishing our interdisciplinary spasticity treatment team and in connecting us with IAB – Interdisciplinary Working Group for Movement Disorders.’ Mrs Pickenbrock uses these data for her MHH-Promotion to Doktorin der Humanbiologie (Dr. rer. biol. hum.).’ After we helped to promote the interdisciplinary approach in spasticity treatment nationwide, we are very proud to also implement it here in Hannover,’ said Professor Dressler.
Every year, more than 270000 people suffer from severe disorders of the central nervous system. To support research and development of effective therapies for those patients the Fuerst Donnersmarck-Stiftung, founded in 1916 by Guido Graf Henckel Fuerst von Donnersmarck, donated this unique research award.