The ALS Association’s Jim “Catfish” Hunter Chapter Enters Agreement with Duke University Medical Center
(DURHAM, NC) The ALS Association’s Jim “Catfish” Hunter Chapter will fund an array of new and expanded services at the Duke University Medical Center ALS Clinic through an innovative collaboration in the fight against Lou Gehrig’s disease.

People with ALS attending the Duke ALS Clinic already have the opportunity to participate in a variety of research including translational research stemming from the Duke ALS Science Group, and multi-center clinical trials stemming from the clinic’s membership in the Northeast ALS Consortium (NEALS) and the ALS Research Group (ALSRG). The clinic provides access to a state-of-the- art multidisciplinary care team including services provided by the ALS Association’s Jim “Catfish” Hunter Chapter and the ALS Division of the Muscular Dystrophy Association (MDA).

“We are pleased to provide new services to the ALS community,” said Jerry Dawson, president and CEO of The Association’s Jim “Catfish” Hunter Chapter. “We are all working together against a common enemy that is ALS. It only makes sense that we coordinate our efforts to expand and improve upon our outreach to people with this terrible disease.”

“Building this clinic has been challenging” says Dr. Richard Bedlack, director of the Duke ALS Clinic. “Each time we add a new service, we have to find ways to get it paid for. While I am very proud of what we’ve been able to develop thus far, this historic relationship will stabilize what we have, and allow us to significantly expand the number of options we provide. The result will be an even better quality of life for our patients with ALS and their families.”

The Duke ALS Clinic currently includes two neurologists, two speech therapists, an assistive technologist, a nutritionist, two physical therapists, two occupational therapists, a social worker, an MDA representative and nurses. The new grant from the Jim “Catfish” Hunter Chapter will fund additional services including a full-time clinic coordinator, a respiratory therapist, an ALS Association representative, a psychologist, increased advocacy and staff training and maintenance of an assistive technology loan closet. The chapter has sponsored the clinic’s nutritionist since 2003.

About ALS
Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis is a progressive, neuromuscular disease with no known cause or cure. It’s believed that as many as 30,000 Americans currently have ALS. One in 800 men and one in 1,200 women will get ALS in their lifetime, and 90 percent of them will have no family history of the disease. Nearly 5,600 people each year in the United States are diagnosed with ALS, which is five times higher than Huntington’s disease and about equal to Multiple Sclerosis.

About the Duke ALS Clinic
The Duke ALS Clinic (www.dukealsclinic.com) was originally founded in 2002 and is recognized as an MDA ALS Research and Clinical Center. The mission of this clinic is to ensure an accurate diagnosis, to maximize quality of life for patients and families, to find better treatments and eventually a cure. The clinic has a multi-disciplinary care team, and a rich research program which includes investigator-initiated and multi-center clinical trials, epidemiology, basic science and translational research. The clinic currently cares for more than 250 patients with ALS, and sees an average of 2 new patients with ALS every week.

About The ALS Association
The ALS Association (www.alsa.org) is the only national not-for-profit, voluntary health organization dedicated solely to the fight against ALS. The mission of The ALS Association is to lead the fight to cure and treat ALS through global, cutting-edge research, and to empower people with Lou Gehrig’s Disease and their families to live fuller lives by providing them with compassionate care and support. The ALS Association supports research, patient and community services, public education, and advocacy to provide help and hope to those facing ALS. In the area of research, The ALS Association’s initiative, Translational Research Advancing Therapy for ALS (TREAT ALS) provides a planning framework for drug discovery and clinical trials. This initiative will accelerate the rate of translational research to enter prioritized, promising treatment candidates into clinical testing in ALS patients. In partnership with academia and biotech, studies such as these will enable rapid testing of novel compounds that may be of benefit in ALS. Jim “Catfish” Hunter, the former World Series Champion and Hall of Famer from eastern North Carolina, lost his battle with ALS in 1999 from complications of the disease. The chapter was later named in his honor. The Jim “Catfish” Hunter Chapter, which serves the state of North Carolina, is one of 41 chapters of The ALS Association. The Catfish Chapter (www.CatfishChapter.org) has provided funding for the Duke Clinic nutritionist every year since 2003 but this latest commitment marks a major step forward towards a deep collaboration for the benefit of all people living with ALS in North Carolina. The chapter also offers many services including respite care grants, transportation grants, assistive technology grants, flex grants, three durable medical equipment loan closets and a series of ALS specific support groups throughout North Carolina.