Movement disorders are conditions that are characterised by a lack of movement or excessive movements. Examples of common movement disorders include Parkinson's disease, tremors and dystonia. Rob de Bie mainly focuses on improving the treatment of Parkinson's disease. This includes treatment with deep brain stimulation, which is also used for other movement disorders at the AMC. De Bie has initiated and managed various major clinical trials which have helped to improve the treatment of patients with Parkinson's.

As professor, De Bie will focus on answering important clinical questions, often with the aid of major clinical trials whose results will have a direct impact on the treatment. Which treatment is best for patients with advanced Parkinson's, for example: deep brain stimulation or the continuous administration of Parkinson's drugs via a pump? He is leading a large ongoing study into the long-term effects of levodopa, for which 446 Parkinson's patients were recruited from sixty Dutch hospitals (www.leapamc.nl). This study led to the creation of a Dutch neurological research network which is now running various projects.

About Rob de Bie

De Bie has worked as a neurologist at the AMC since 2006. In 2005 and 2006, he took a clinical fellowship in movement disorders at Toronto Western Hospital in Canada. He leads the movement disorders group at the AMC and the Neurodegeneration programme at the Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience in Amsterdam. As well as teaching students, interns and assistant doctors who are training to be medical specialists, he also leads (international) courses on movement disorders and deep brain stimulation treatment for medical specialists. De Bie is a member of the Evidence Based Medicine Review committee of the International Parkinson and Movement Disorders Society and the guidelines committee for the treatment of Parkinson's disease at the American Academy of Neurology.

De Bie is the editor of Nervus, an online medium for practical Neurology training. He has published in numerous scientific journals, including The Lancet, The New England Journal of Medicine and Neurology. He has also won various awards for his work; e.g., from the Amsterdamsche Neurologenvereeniging (Amsterdam Association of Neurologists), the Nederlandse Vereniging voor Neurologie (Dutch Neurology Association) and the Parkinson Vereniging (Parkinson's Association).