2016, a year of expansion and success

This year has seen the Parkinson's Academy go from strength to strength, and so successful in fact that we have now expanded to form an umbrella organisation called the Neurology Academy.Parkinson's Academy now sits within it alongside a fully fledged Dementia Academy and Multiple Sclerosis Academy, plus Commissioning Support, with plans for an Epilepsy Academy not far off.This cluster of specialty Academies which each have their own website are reflected in the Neurology Academy's logo, which incorporates a coloured strand from each individual Academy.Plans are afoot for our first MasterClass to be held outside the UK soon in Sharjah, Dubai, providing a day's Dementia Academy training in February for students, health professionals and academics. In the same vein the International Neurology Academy logo integrates strands from our Parkinson's, Dementia and Epilepsy Academy motifs.We hope to hold more MasterClasses abroad in the future; however, for our next international foray we are currently working with ACNR (Advances in Clinical Neuroscience & Rehabilitation) to produce an editorial e-newsletter for neurology specialists in Australia and New Zealand in mid-January 2017.Dementia Academy has had a fantastic first year of MasterClasses, culminating in the development of a new multi-level integrated dementia pathway toolkit that we hope will be a useful resource for everyone working in dementia care. The toolkit is in its final stages and will be available shortly on the Academy website. The next Dementia MasterClass is planned for May 2017 - see the Dementia Academy website for more information.The MS Academy training programme for 2017 has now been finalised, offering free courses to any neurologist seeing MS patients. See the MS Academy website for more information about course dates and programmes, and which now also features a full set of videos exploring the different subject areas on offer.This year saw the Academy tour the UK with the Non-oral therapy roadshow series, which will continue next year, and we are now launching a Non-motor roadshows specifically aimed at allied health professionals working with Parkinson's patients. Visit the links to register your interest.We are keen to encourage more allied health professionals to join the Parkinson's MasterClass courses and can also help advise on funding options. Advanced Clinical Pharmacist, Viv Horton, was keen to share her experience and recently told us about how she benefited from the Advanced MasterClass course.As ever 2016's Parkinson's Academy MasterClasses received excellent feedback, including one delegate who said a session was "probably the best CPD activity that I have attended this year" to another who said it was "an excellent and very useful course for doctors dealing with patients with complex Parkinson's disease".All that's left is to thank everyone who has made the Academy such a success this year, and we look forward to welcoming new delegates to our evolving programme of training in 2017!