ALS Center Turns 20

Lehigh Valley Fleming Neuroscience Institute’s ALS Center is celebrating 20 years of helping patients live life with a disease that slowly robs their brain of its ability to connect with their muscles and can affect breathing.

“We expect someone with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) to live two to five years, so we help them live their best life with treatments that provide a compassionate, holistic approach,” says neurologist Alissa Romano, DO, one of the center’s directors. “Our center is an ALS Association recognized treatment center, a sign of the quality care we deliver.”

The Fleming Neuroscience Institute’s ALS Center is multi-disciplinary, bringing a variety of options to care for ALS patients. Services include physical, occupational and speech therapy, a registered dietitian, respiratory therapist, neuropsychologist and social workers. As part of its assistance, the center also works to link ALS patients with the latest technology to help them communicate when that ability becomes impaired.

Most people who develop ALS are between 40 and 70. About 5,000 people are diagnosed with ALS each year in the U.S.

Dr. Romano, a center co-director along with Alison Walsh, MD, says the center – affiliated with the ALS Association and ALS United – has grown over time to a multidisciplinary team offering world-class treatment close to home for ALS patients in the region. “We participate in multiple clinical trials, giving our patients access to potentially groundbreaking new therapies. We’ve cared for hundreds of patients with ALS, and we are proud to be commemorating the ALS center’s 20 years of service,” Dr. Romano says.

The ALS Center is participating in two drug trials. In each case, the objective of the medications involved is to slow the progression of ALS.

Steven Lewis, MD, physician in chief for Lehigh Valley Fleming Neuroscience Institute, says the center’s “remarkable, comprehensive multi-expert approach” benefits both ALS patients and their families. “I’d like to thank all our ALS center clinicians and staff involved in this important work on behalf of ALS patients in the region. We are the only ALS center in the Lehigh Valley region and deliver compassionate care close to home.”