Florida's Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo will be tasked with focusing his office on brain diseases in the wake of legislation signed Friday by Gov. Ron DeSantis.
SB 186, colloquially called the "Justo R. Cortes Progressive Supranuclear Palsy Act," compels Ladapo to set up a progressive supranuclear palsy and other neurodegenerative diseases policy committee.
"Without proper detection at an early stage, PSP will only worsen with life-threatening complications," sponsoring Sen. Jason Brodeur said to State of Reform earlier this year.
"We have not found a cure for PSP, so the biggest focus is on managing care. This bill (directs) the Department of Health to establish a work policy group comprised of healthcare workers, family members, and advocates whose aim is to identify those in our state with PSP and other neurodegenerative diseases, create a standard of care for detection and treatment, (and) develop recommendations to help improve patient awareness, especially in our more vulnerable population areas."
The bill is named after the father of former state Rep. Bob Cortes. The legislator's father, now in his 80s, is wheelchair bound and incapacitated due to the ravages of this disease.
Ladapo is compelled to move quickly.
The committee must be appointed by Sept. 1 and must hold its first meeting by Oct. 1, with all meetings by teleconference.
A progress report from the SG is required by Jan. 4 of next year, and from there Ladapo has a year to file a final report.
The committee is slated to sunset by July 2026.
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