Movement Disorders

Division Chief

  • Profile Headshot
    • Co-Director, Motor Neuron Center
    • Vice Chair of Research, Department of Neurology
    • Director, Columbia Translational Neuroscience Initiative (CTNI)
    • Chief, Division of Movement Disorders

Columbia University Irving Medical Center has a long and illustrious history of research, education, and patient care in Parkinson's disease (PD) and other movement disorders. Beginning in the 1940s, Dr. Lewis Doshay established a Parkinson's Disease Clinic and carried out extensive trials on the use of synthetic anticholinergics to treat PD. In 1964, after his retirement, the directorship of the clinic passed to Dr. Melvin Yahr who, with his trainee Dr. Margaret Hoehn, created the Hoehn and Yahr scale, one of the most widely used measures of PD disability to this day. Dr. Yahr also established one of the first NIH-funded PD Research Centers in the United States. He recruited and trained some of the world's leading investigators in PD, including Dr. Stanley Fahn and Dr. Roger Duvoisin.

When Dr. Yahr left to become chairman of neurology at Mount Sinai Medical Center in 1973, Dr. Stanley Fahn became the director of the Division of Movement Disorders. Dr. Fahn, a pioneering clinician-researcher, expanded the scope of the center to include other related disorders that cause abnormal involuntary movements, such as dystonia, tremors, ataxia, chorea, Tourette syndrome, and myoclonus. In addition, Dr. Fahn co-founded the Parkinson Study Group—one of the principal organizations for the study of PD and related disorders—as well as the Movement Disorder Society, and the journal Movement Disorders, the principal journal in the field. Over the decades, the Division of Movement Disorders grew to become one of the top clinical and research programs in the country, through which more than 100 movement disorder subspecialists have been trained.

In 2013, Dr. Fahn stepped down as chief of the division. Dr. Un Jung Kang, a protégé of Dr. Fahn, took his place as the chief of the division July 1, 2013, to January 11, 2019. As of January 12, 2019, Dr. Serge Przedborski, became the new chief of the Division of Movement Disorders.

The mission of the division remains the same. Together with our valued patients and their families, we seek to develop better treatments for movement disorders and, eventually, a cure. We will continue our research to identify the earliest changes in the brain that result in involuntary movements, define the genetic and/or environmental contributions to this process, and test new therapies to improve the lives of those with movement disorders.

Each physician in the Columbia Neurology movement disorders team is not only specially trained in the diagnosis and treatment of movement disorders, but also conducts cutting-edge basic and/or clinical research that furthers our knowledge of these complex neurological diseases.

Patient Care

The Division of Movement Disorders has been designated Centers of Excellence by the Parkinson Foundation (PF), CurePSP, the National Ataxia Foundation, and Lewy Body Dementia Association. The first and most important role of our physicians is to provide you and your family with exceptional neurological care for a wide range of movement disorders.

Learn About Patient Care

Center for Movement Disorder Surgery

The Center for Movement Disorder Surgery at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Irving Medical Center is a collaboration between the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons Departments of Neurology and Neurological Surgery.

Visit the Center

Research

The Department of Neurology's Division of Movement Disorders is world-renowned for its tradition of excellence in research focused on Parkinson's disease and other movement disorders.

Explore Our Research

Movement Disorders Brain Bank

Biochemical and histochemical analysis of brain tissue donated by people with movement disorders may provide the key to understanding the cause and treatment of these disorders. Therefore, we ask many of our patients and their families to please consider brain donation as a gift of hope. 

Education

Learn more about our Movement Disorders fellowship program and other educational opportunities in the Department of Neurology at Columbia University Irving Medical Center.

Movement Disorders Fellowship