Nutan Sharma, MD, PhD
Nutan Sharma, MD, PhD
Director, Partners Dystonia Clinic at Massachusetts General Hospital
Associate Professor of Neurology, Harvard Medical School
About Nutan Sharma, MD, PhD
Dr. Sharma specializes in dystonic movement disorders. She is a member of the Partners Neurology Movement Disorders Center and practices at Massachusetts General Hospital and Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston.
As attending neurologist on the consultation service, Dr. Sharma supervises neurology residents and Harvard Medical School students. She also serves as an individual career mentor for the Partners Neurology Residency Program serving Massachusetts General Hospital, Brigham and Women's Hospital, and Harvard Medical School.
Dr. Sharma is active in clinical research on dystonia and Parkinson's disease. She is widely published and serves as an ad hoc reviewer for the New England Journal of Medicine, Neurology, Movement Disorders, American Journal of Pathology, and Acta Neuropathologica.
After graduating from the State University of New York at Stony Brook with a doctorate of medicine and a doctorate of philosophy in neuroscience, Dr. Sharma trained at Evanston Hospital in Evanston Illinois in internal medicine and at Yale University in neurology. She completed a fellowship in movement disorders at Massachusetts General Hospital, in Boston. Dr. Sharma is board certified in neurology. She consults for pediatric movement disorders at Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital and the MassGeneral Hospital for Children, both in Boston.
Departments, Centers, & Programs:
Clinical Interests:
- Dystonia
- Parkinson's disease
- Movement disorders
- Ataxia
- Neurology
- Pediatric Neurology
Treats:
- Pediatrics & Adults
Locations
Neurology Associates
165 Cambridge Street
Suite 820
Boston, MA 02114-2783
Phone: 617-726-3642
Fax: 617-726-2019
Medical Education
- MD, SUNY at Stony Brook School of Medicine
- PhD, SUNY at Stony Brook School of Medicine
- Residency, Yale-New Haven Hospital
- Fellowship, Massachusetts General Hospital
American Board Certifications
- Neurology, American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology
Accepted Insurance Plans
- Aetna Health Inc.
- AllWays Health (NHP) - ACD
- AllWays Health (NHP) - PBO
- Beech Street
- Blue Cross Blue Shield - Blue Care 65
- Blue Cross Blue Shield - Indemnity
- Blue Cross Blue Shield - Managed Care
- Blue Cross Blue Shield - Partners Plus
- BMC HealthNet Mass Health MCO/ACO
- Cigna (PAL #'s)
- Commonwealth Care Alliance
- Fallon Community HealthCare
- Great-West Healthcare (formally One Health Plan)
- Harvard Pilgrim Health Plan - ACD
- Harvard Pilgrim Health Plan - PBO
- Health Care Value Management (HCVM)
- Humana/Choice Care PPO
- Maine Community Health Options (MCHO)
- MassHealth
- Medicare
- Medicare - ACD
- OSW - Connecticut
- OSW - Maine
- OSW - New Hampshire
- OSW - Rhode Island
- Private Health Care Systems (PHCS)
- Railroad Medicare
- Senior Whole Health
- TriCare
- Tufts Health Plan
- Unicare
- United Healthcare (non-HMO) - ACD
- United Healthcare (non-HMO) - PBO
- Well Sense Pediatrics
Note: This provider may accept more insurance plans than shown; please call the practice to find out if your plan is accepted.
Research
The Dystonia Center also serves as a gateway for those patients who are interested in participating in research. I am the Principal Investigator of the Clinical Core of an NIH-funded P50 grant, Molecular Etiology of Early Onset Torsion Dystonia. The P50 supports: (1) systematic clinical evaluation at each visit, as part of a longitudinal study of the natural history of dystonia; (2) genetic research regarding the role of single nucleotide polymorphisms in the Tor1A gene in the development of focal dystonias; (3) collection of families with dystonia, obtaining both DNA and systematic clinical examination data, to help identify as yet unidentified dystonia causing genes and (4) fMRI studies to evaluate white matter microstructure in those with focal dystonia. The genetic studies are part of an on-going collaboration with Dr. Laurie Ozelius at Mount Sinai School of Medicine, who has NIH funding for this research. The fMRI studies are part of an on-going collaboration with Dr. Anne Blood, of the Department of Psychiatry at MGH, who has NIH funding for this research.
Publications
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Sharma N, and Richman, E. (2005) Parkinson's Disease and the Family, Harvard University Press.
Blood, AJ, et al. (2006) White matter abnormalities in dystonia normalize after botulinum toxin treatment. NeuroReport 17:1251-1255.
Shields DC, et al. (2007) Pallidal Stimulation for Dystonia in Pantothenate-Kinase Associated Neurodegeneration. Neurology. 34:442-445.
Sharma N (2008) Parkinson's disease. Greenwood Press.
Timmermann L, et al. (2010) Dystonia in neurodegeneration with brain iron accumulation: outcome of bilateral pallidal stimulation. Brain 133:701-12.
Sharma N, et al. (2010) Genetic evidence for an association of the TOR1A locus with segmental/focal dystonia. Mov Disord 25:2183-2187.
Sharma N, et al. (2011) Mutation in 5 upstream region of GCH1 gene causes familial dopa-responsive dystonia. Mov Disord In press.