NeuroVoices: Kathrin LaFaver, MD, FAAN, DipABLM, on What’s Ahead for Movement Disorder Care in 2026

Over the past several years, care for patients with movement disorders has undergone significant transformation, driven by advances in technology, expanding therapeutic options, and a growing emphasis on individualized, multidisciplinary approaches. Diagnostic tools, including artificial intelligence (AI)–assisted assessments, have enhanced the accuracy and speed of identifying conditions such as Parkinson disease (PD), while emerging pharmacologic therapies offer new avenues for symptom management and disease modification.

As the field continues to evolve, these trends are shaping clinical practice in 2026, influencing both how neurologists approach patient care and the expectations for future innovation. In a new iteration of NeuroVoices, movement disorder expert Kathrin LaFaver, MD, FAAN, DipABLM, neurologist in the Department of Neurology at Saratoga Hospital Medical Group, gave perspectives on the key emerging themes to the movement disorder field clinicians should be aware of. Among them, she highlighted AI as a key driver of innovation in neurology, particularly for improving diagnostic accuracy in movement disorders.

Throughout the conversation, LaFaver, the co-founder of the Women Neurologists Group (WNG), also pointed to anticipated therapeutic advances, including a novel dopamine receptor partial agonist for PD and a first-in-class medication targeting T-type calcium channels for essential tremor. Furthermore, the neurologist emphasized ongoing unmet needs in neurology, particularly limited access to specialty care, and underscored the importance of multidisciplinary care teams to better meet patient needs.

NeurologyLive: Which emerging therapies or technologies in neurology are you most excited to see advance in 2026, and why?

Kathrin LaFaver, MD, FAAN, DipABLM: We're in a very exciting time in medicine. Honestly, the thing that gets me most excited is AI. It’s, of course, a big topic in general and in medicine right now, but I’ve seen so many exciting developments in this field. Talking specifically in the realm of movement disorders and dementia care, my former co-resident and colleague, David T. Jones, MD, is the director of the AI program in neurology at Mayo Clinic in Minnesota, and he just recently published a great paper on using AI tools in combination with FDG-PET scans to make a much more accurate diagnosis in dementia—well beyond just Alzheimer disease—by really subtyping different dementia types much more clearly.

Those are the developments that enhance patient care and diagnostic accuracy and will bring the field forward. AI also is, or can be, useful for many different applications in neurology, from early detection of disease symptoms to patient monitoring. Right now, we’re not doing so well with that. If our patients forget their appointments and don’t come see us, they often fall out of our care, whereas some new startup companies are trying to fill this gap and really offer more timely symptom management by monitoring patients in the home and checking in on them.

There is are going to be a lot of opportunities for clinicians to partner with providers to improve patient care in that realm. That’s really what I’m most excited about. Beyond just the diagnostic and treatment aspects, AI is already helping clinicians reduce administrative burden, which is a big driver of burnout for physicians. It’s also helping with insurance communication. I think that is—and will remain—the big story in medicine for quite a while.

From a clinical perspective, what developments do you anticipate will have the greatest impact on patient care this year?

I’m looking forward to 2 new medications expected to come on the market this year. One medication is for Parkinson disease, called tavapadon, and it’s made by AbbVie. It’s a new drug designed to improve motor control, potentially causing fewer dyskinesias compared with levodopa and currently available dopamine agonists. It’s a selective D1/D5 dopamine receptor partial agonist, so it’s a new class that’s not currently available and promises to have some real advantages over existing medications—especially for people who have motor fluctuations and dyskinesias with Parkinson disease. It might be a good new option for them.

The other medication I’m really excited about, and hopeful to see on the market soon, is for essential tremor. As you may know, essential tremor is very common, yet treatment can be challenging, especially for patients with more severe tremor. Beyond surgical treatments—which not everyone wants to pursue—there really haven’t been any new medications developed or approved for a very long time, and the currently available treatments are all off-label.

There is a new medication called ulixacaltamide from Praxis Precision Medicines. It did receive FDA breakthrough designation and will hopefully come on the market later this year. It focuses on inhibiting T-type calcium channels, which is a new mechanism of action in this tremor class, and it promises hope for patients who have inadequate tremor control with current therapies.

Looking ahead this year, are there any unmet needs in neurology that you hope will be addressed?

If you ask people living with movement disorders themselves, everyone wants a cure, right? Of course, there’s a lot of research going on. We could talk about many topics, such as stem cell therapies that are under investigation for Parkinson disease, for example. But looking at other unmet care needs, I would say access to neurology care is truly an unmet need.

In many cases, my own patients throughout the country often have to wait many months to see a neurologist. Again, I’m coming back to AI, because neurologists are not suddenly going to increase in number anytime soon. As health care systems evolve, we all have to learn how to triage patients more effectively and maybe develop algorithms, again possibly with the help of AI, so that more routine conditions, like diabetic neuropathy, can be recognized and managed by primary care providers, while patients with more complex issues are triaged to neurologists.

That’s just one example, but we need to be more creative in helping people gain better access to neurology care and in empowering primary care providers to manage routine neurological conditions so we can all work together as a team. Along those same lines, patients with neurologic disorders need much more than just a neurologist. Parkinson disease is an example—patients often benefit from access to physical therapy, speech therapy, nutritionists, and many other professionals who can be very helpful. We don’t typically have these multidisciplinary care teams built into our systems.

Again, there are many startup companies trying to fill this gap, and I think we can all learn from that and hopefully make changes in health care systems to work better together. We need to empower patients with more than just access to a neurologist and take a more holistic approach to meeting their care needs—from physical therapy to palliative care—so patients have support at all stages of their disease and in all areas of life affected by their neurologic illness.

Transcript edited for clarity. Click here to view more NeuroVoices.