In April 2025, Dr Luca Pollini, a Child Neurologist and Psychiatrist from Rome, became the first recipient of the Dystonia Europe Grant for Patient Care.
This is a new initiative for prolonged, comprehensive training in Dystonia, in order to get fully experienced doctors that will provide high quality care for patients, disseminate knowledge, connect with patient associations (in their own country and at the international level (i.e. Dystonia Europe)) and will be integrated into the medical and scientific community of the movement disorders doctors.
On April 28, 2026, Dystonia Europe Past President, Edwige Ponseel, met with Dr Pollini at La Pitié Salpêtrière Hospital in Paris, France.
Dr Pollini reported that he is very happy with his time at La Pitié. He is under the supervision of under the supervision of Prof Emmanuel Flamand-Roze, who has introduced him to everyone, and he works with all the teams (clinical, research, etc.) He will be staying on for a few more months to wrap up ongoing projects, as he wants to see certain projects through to completion.
He notes that this facility, one of Europe’s leading hospitals, is very well-equipped, as patient tests can be performed immediately following an examination. He recalls that in Rome, he has to spend three hours on the phone just to get an imaging appointment!
Dr Pollini is a pediatric neurologist. He plans to return to pediatrics after his stay, enriched by the experience and, of course, maintaining contact with the Parisian clinical and research teams.
His training stay has primarily allowed him to observe various focal and multifocal dystonias in adults and their progression, which will enable him to better diagnose children presenting with a more complex spectrum of symptoms.
He believes that the duration of this fellowship will have been ideal for seeing and re-evaluating patients, as well as monitoring the progress of treatments and clinical or research outcomes.
The Dystonia Europe Grant for Patient Care was kindly supported by Merz Therapeutics.
