TULSA, Okla — 2 News sat down with a Tulsa woman who was having a hard time getting an appointment at a local neurologist.
Local News
NEUROLOGIST SHORTAGE: Tulsa woman struggles to find specialist
She says she was pointed to Oklahoma City for care. A Tulsa neurologist explains the reasons behind the shortage and what he says needs to be done.
“I’ve had epilepsy since I was 8 years old,” said Helen Scott.
With a new non-cancerous tumor on her brain, Helen Scott says she needed to see a neurologist but couldn’t get an appointment in town.
“It did make me feel very nervous,” said Scott.
“This is not just a local problem in Tulsa this is really a national issue,” said Dr. Christopher Glisson.
Dr. Christopher Glisson is the Medical Director for the Warren Neuroscience Institute at St. Francis Health.
“We know that increasing age is the single biggest risk factor for progressive neurodegenerative diseases and we know that patients are simply getting older,” said Dr. Glisson.
He says by 2030 the number of patients who experience a stroke is expected to increase by 20%. He says by 2040 we could see the number of patients with Parkinson’s double and by 2050 the number of patients with dementia could also double.
“We know that we have a lot more treatments for neurological diseases that are really making a difference,” said Dr. Glisson. “Patients with neurological diagnoses are simply living longer but those two things together really just adds to the number of patients that there are to care for in any given community.”
He says in 2013 there were only 6 states in the entire country that had a sufficient supply of neurologists based on patient need. Dr. Glisson says this year they anticipate only 9 states have enough.
He says 88% of states with a deficit have one greater than 20%.
“This really is a national problem but that we’re working here locally very very diligently to try to resolve that issue for our community,” said Dr. Glisson.
He says communities need to invest in more training programs to get more medical students interested in this specialty.
“If we can expose medical students to rotations in neurology or even undergraduate students so they can learn a bit about what neurology is and what we do we know that we’ll have a greater supply of neurologists coming through training programs,” said Dr. Glisson. “People who are raised in a community or who train in a particular specialty in a community will stay in that community for practice so it’s very important that we continue to develop those neuroscience pipelines here in Tulsa.”
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