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Background The purpose of this study was to explore validity of the Clinical Dementia Rating Scale in measuring cognitive impairment among individuals with Parkinson's disease. The scale was created for use in patients with Alzheimer's disease and, to date, there have been no published studies examining if this tool is appropriate for patients with Parkinson's disease. Methods The data were obtained from the National Alzheimer's Coordinating Center database and included 490 subjects diagnosed with Parkinson's disease, further categorized as having Parkinson's disease dementia (n= 151), mild cognitive impairment (n= 186), or normal cognition (n = 153) by a treating physician. Sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value and negative predictive values were calculated for the Clinical Dementia Rating Scale Global Score as well as the Sum of Boxes Score using existing cutoff scores. Finally, new cutoff scores were calculated using sensitivity and specificity values derived using Receiver Operating Characteristic curves. Results Sensitivity and specificity of the published Global Score cutoff scores for patients with dementia were .34 and .10, respectively. The newly calculated cutoff scores for patients with dementia yielded a sensitivity of .79 and a specificity of .96. The area under the curve was 0.92 (95% CI = 0.90-0.95). Conclusion The CDR is a useful tool in identifying dementia in patients with Parkinson's disease when the cutoff scores are adjusted.

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An interprofessional course (IPC) was developed to provide basic guidance in developing essential knowledge, skills, attitudes, and values in order to function effectively in an interprofessional healthcare community. A total of 357 firstyear students from seven professional programs: Dental Health Science, Masters of Healthcare Administration, Occupational Therapy, Physical Therapy, Physician Assistant Studies, Pharmacy, and Professional Psychology, were enrolled in the IPC. Sixteen faculty members from the above programs participated to deliver four didactic topics: teambuilding and communication, diversity, professionalism, and community resources. A fifth topic was assigned to summarize didactic and experiential experiences. Pre and post surveys were implemented to evaluate the effectiveness of the entire IPC. Our results indicated that students appreciated the value of an IPC for developing interprofessional skills and that an interprofessional course is a meaningful curricular activity to be offered to students. Steps taken to establish and implement the IPC and identify strengths and challenges are discussed.

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