Achievements and future goals: An interview with MDS President • 2025 MDS Congress

Dr. Victor Fung: It's a great pleasure, Michele. 

Dr. Michele Matarazzo: During the Congress every year we have a conversation with the president. We want to know what is happening in the society, what has happened over the last year, and what will happen in the future. But this year is special for you because it's the last time that we are gonna talk to you as the president.

You're gonna still be the past president for the next couple of years. But next year we're gonna be interviewing someone different. So let's talk first about the past and let's see what you think are the greatest achievements of this two years of presidency?

Dr. Victor Fung: Thank you, [00:01:00] Michele. The first thing to say is that the MDS is a huge organization and so I don't regard any achievements as being mine. I often say that what has really attracted me to work with and for the MDS is that the MDS is a can-do organization. And with the MDS thought translates into action.

And so it's not a matter of groups of people sitting around talking and nothing getting done. And the action is actually carried out by all of our volunteers, the over 750 members who do volunteer in groups and committees and so on for the MDS. And also of course, our secretariat as well.

So the things that I had really wanted to try to drive at the beginning of my presidency two years ago were equality of access to care and to increase engagement of the MDS with patients and carers. The third thing that I really was hoping to do was to [00:02:00] increase the quality of representation geographically of our members In the activities of the MDS.

We've created the committee for Equality of access to care. And one of the things that we've helped to achieve, it's not been a solo achievement, but we actually have helped to reestablish the supply of Levodopa in Lao as an example. I think we'll almost achieve changing the way that Levodopa is made available to patients in Bolivia.

We've created MDS patients and carers for the first time. We have an official MDS interaction with patients and carers. And this will grow so that hopefully we will be able to provide a rich source of reliable information to patients and carers to help them in their journeys. And it's not just about Parkinson's, but we will engage patients and carers who are dealing with the gamut of, or the range of movement disorders. And I think there's a very strong involvement of people [00:03:00] from around the globe. We have over 160 countries represented in the MDS. And so there's a fairly even representation based on MDS membership of our various committees and leadership now. So I'm very happy with those things.

Dr. Michele Matarazzo: Well, they're actually very impactful projects, both for the patients and also for the members of the society. And I know you, you don't like to be proud of yourself, but I definitely I think that the society has advanced a lot in the in the last year. So that is great.

And is there anything that is happening right now in the society or any project that is ongoing and that you will keep supporting over the next of the next years as past president?

Dr. Victor Fung: So one very important project that we're towards the end of completing is, during the past two years there have been increasing availabilities of biomarkers for Parkinson's

And there have been a couple of groups that have published very important papers advocating for a switch to a [00:04:00] biological classification of Parkinson's disease and maybe even changing the definition of Parkinson's disease. So using the biology to diagnose Parkinson's, even when there's not necessarily clinical manifestations. Similar to what's happened with Alzheimer's disease and the advent of amyloid immunotherapy where people are advocating to diagnose Alzheimer's disease on the basis of positive assays of tau or of amyloid PET. Now, this dichotomy or split, is not accepted by everyone. Especially for Parkinson's disease , it's been made very clear that the authors of those biological classifications are advocating for this to be used for research, not for clinical practice. But there's not been a way of actually reconciling our day-to-day clinical practice with what these researchers are suggesting. And so we've been working on what will be called the MDS Parkinson and Lewy Body [00:05:00] Diseases Clinical and biological framework. And this clinical and biological framework will basically put together a framework that can be used as a common language so that clinicians and researchers focusing on biomarker research can actually speak in the same room and understand each other. And and an important part of what we will be introducing is not just biomarkers, genetics, but also we will introduce the exposome into this way of thinking about Parkinson's and Lewy body diseases

Dr. Michele Matarazzo: That sounds very interesting. Now, I wanted to ask you about this Congress.

What were your highlights?

Dr. Victor Fung: Of the things we've introduced in the Congress during the past two or three years is what's called the keynote lecture and clinical breakthrough session. And we invite someone who is doing work in health or science related to, but not necessarily specifically movement disorders. This year we had an incredibly [00:06:00] inspirational and exciting talk from Sergio Pasca who's working with organoids and assembloids. So basically growing human neuronal structures that can be used to advance therapeutics and our understanding of pathophysiology of disease. It was an amazing talk. A lot of people that I spoke to said he's going to win a Nobel Prize one day, and I had the same thought as well. So that was incredibly exciting. That dovetails with the clinical breakthrough session, which is a session we've introduced where, breaking major clinical trials can now be presented in a plenary session to our members, and which can then be publicized. That was very exciting as well.

And then I think for me, the video challenge, that has always been one of the highlights of the MDS for me. It gave me an entry into the activities of the MDS when I was a panelist during the third video Olympics, as it [00:07:00] was then called, in 2010.

And so it was my great honor and pleasure as my last official act as president to award the medals to the winners of the presentations at last night's video challenge. So that was a great honor, and I was very pleased to have the opportunity to do that.

Dr. Michele Matarazzo: Perfect. Thank you. And actually the the keynote lecture is gonna be available also online after the Congress?

Dr. Victor Fung: The plenary sessions are being recorded and should be available.

Dr. Michele Matarazzo: Okay. Now, as we were mentioning is this is the last interview that we do at the Congress with you as a president. Do you have a message for our members? Anything that you would like to tell our members , now that you have your microphone and you can talk to all of them?

Dr. Victor Fung: The few messages I would have would be, first, a message of thanks because I truly am grateful for all the work that our members do, but also for the trust and the honor of having had the chance to lead the MDS on their behalf.

The second thing [00:08:00] is to just continue to work passionately and to follow their heart in terms of how they want to approach their mission as a doctor or healthcare professional. I think at the end of the day, the most important thing if you're a doctor is looking after your patients. And everything we do is geared at trying to make that better for patients and for carers. And it doesn't matter whether you are a practicing doctor in private practice, an academic researcher, an allied health professional, a scientist working in the laboratory, that's our final common pathway in terms of what we want to try to achieve, helping patients and carers.

No matter what you're doing you are playing an important part. And keep doing it with passion. And if you want to be involved in MDS activities, please just let leadership know that you have that interest because we welcome contributions from our volunteers.

Dr. Michele Matarazzo: Perfect. And, we're getting towards the end of this interview, and you know that [00:09:00] next year in Seoul, Korea for the MDS Congress of 2026, we're gonna be interviewing David by who is now, and just for a few more minutes, the president elect and is gonna be the president then. Is there any message that we want us to give him when we interview him next year?

Dr. Victor Fung: A part from a big thank you from me, David is an outstanding person and he has taken a bit of a sidestep into an academic university administrative and research career in recent years, but for a long time I followed him in important positions: the Congress scientific program committee chair, the treasurer of the MDS. And so I learned an incredible amount about leadership and was inspired by him. I have no advice to give him except to say, don't follow me, because I've been following him.

Dr. Michele Matarazzo: That will be a circle. Okay. Thank you very much Victor, for being with us today, and thank you for these years and all the work you've done, and you will continue doing, of course, for the [00:10:00] society. Let's end this interview the Hawaiian Way: mahalo. Thank you

Dr. Victor Fung: Mahalo.

Dr. Michele Matarazzo: And thank you all for listening.