Wed, 04/27/2022 - 13:26
Dr. Randy Pardell became involved in TMS and the world of psychology long before he was the president of the Clinical TMS Society. He grew up in northern New Jersey with a dentist for a father and a psychologist for a mother. When he was young, his mother had gone back to school to get her psychology degree. “I learned about Freud and Skinner as [a child],” Dr. Pardell reflects. “I had some run-ins with great people like Albert Ellis when I was ten or eleven years old…I had psychiatry and psychology in my blood at a very young age.”
Dr. Pardell’s collegiate career led him first to the University of Pennsylvania, and then NYU medical school. During his time in school, Dr. Pardell met and worked with several influential leaders in the fields of psychology and psychiatry, including Martin Seligman who pioneered the theory of learned helplessness, and Aaron Beck, the father of CBT. He then went on to Columbia University where he conducted smoking cessation research with Alexander Glassman in the Department of Clinical Psychopharmacology.
In the mid-90’s, he started his own practice called the Riverview Center for Psychiatric Medicine in the Hudson Valley of New York. It was here that he started his family and helped fulfill his wife’s childhood dream by purchasing a horse farm. “That sort of made a major change in our lives,” says Dr. Pardell. “We were running a horse farm and doing horse shows…and my younger son eventually became a polo player.” As for Dr. Pardell himself, he says he rarely gets on a horse (he’s seen his wife and son fall too many times), but he’ll always be a big supporter.
As he was getting into the equestrian world, Dr. Pardell was also looking into TMS. In 2006, he was challenged by a patient of his. “[He was] one of these high-level IBM executives who I was [helping] pharmacologically…with his depression. He said, ‘You’re not doing it doc. I need something else,’”. This prompted Dr. Pardell to learn more about TMS and refer his patient for the original Neuronetics trial, though unfortunately, he didn’t qualify. But the patient, and Dr. Pardell, did not give up. “In October of 2008, when Neurostar got its original approval, [my patient] said, ‘All right doc, when are you getting your [TMS] system?’”. Dr. Pardell then attended the first meeting of TMS prescribers in the U.S., where Mark George gave a plenary talk. Shortly after, Dr. Pardell purchased his first TMS system in 2009 and opened the TMS Center of Hudson Valley.
“It was really hard at that time…because there were no insurance approvals, so we had to really push.” And Dr. Pardell had been pushing from the start. He worked with Martha Rhodes, who was herself a TMS patient, to co-write her memoir 3,000 Pulses. “Neuronetics brought us together,” he explains. “She and I started the first TMS support group together…patients were coming in and talking about TMS, [its] benefits…and how they deal with insurance reimbursement”.
It became clear that TMS was the future for Dr. Pardell’s practice. Just as he was preparing to expand his TMS practice by consolidated new TMS systems into his office while becoming the president-elect of the Clinical TMS Society, the pandemic hit. A survey of society members showed that about 26% of TMS practitioners had to pause or close at this time. Dr. Pardell’s practice was among them.
“That was really an examination time,” he says. For new ways to look at practicing during a pandemic, he turned to his sons. “My eldest has his JD MBA and my younger son has his MBA in healthcare entrepreneurship,” he explains. “They had their own jobs…but they jumped in to help. Maybe three months later we started treating patients, and I thank [Dr.] Rich [Bermudes] for doing a great job with COVID-safety; we used all the information that our society helped put together. We started doing TMS again and our practice has really grown, and I give my sons a huge amount of credit,” Dr. Pardell says. His practice has come out on the other side of the pandemic treating close to 30 patients per day in an office newly renovated by his wife. “It truly is a family business!” he says. His sons continue to help the practice by putting together a business plan as well as making successful insurance appeals to the state of New York.
In addition to all of this, Dr. Pardell dove head-first into his presidency with the Clinical TMS Society. “It has really been one of the most rewarding professional experiences of my life,” he says. “[The society] is a wonderful complement of clinicians and academics that are working…toward a common goal increasing awareness and access for TMS”. His goal was to attend as many committee meetings as possible while helping to lead the board of directors through strategic planning. In June of last year, they worked on more than ten new initiatives, many of which have already been completed. “The one that I’m really itching on right now is…1,000 members! I want to see that 1,000 members and…we are getting closer and closer,” Dr. Pardell says.
Dr. Pardell has also been working with Drs. Rebecca Allen and Michelle Cochran to improve coordination with the APA to spread TMS awareness. As a result, APA president Rebecca Brendell will be giving a plenary talk at the Clinical TMS Society’s 10th anniversary gala. “We are really engaging with advocacy and education for our general psychiatric colleagues…so that’s been terrific,” Dr. Pardell says.
Some of the other initiatives he’s been working on include:
· New Member Orientation and Mentorship
· TMS Education for Residents
· Increased Diversity
· Increased International Presence
· Foundation for the Advancement of Clinical TMS
“My really wonderful colleague and good friend is [Dr.] Mo Abdelghani… He’s going to be our next president, [ad] he’s going to be a great international president to help solidify us as an international…TMS society,” Dr. Pardell says of the president-elect who is based in London. “…[Being president] really is a volunteer part-time job. I would probably say 20 hours a week I’m doing something for the [society],” Dr. Pardell says.
He knows Dr. Abdelghani is up to the challenge: “The thing about Mo is…it’s 8 o’clock at night on the East Coast, and it’s 2 in the morning in London, and he’s at every meeting”. Dr. Abdelghani has been sitting in on meetings with Dr. Pardell and executive director Ashleigh Servadio in preparation for his time as president. “He is going to be able to hit the ground running and…all of the initiatives from our strategic planning meeting are going to be brought forward into the next year,” Dr. Pardell explains.
As his presidency comes to a close, Dr. Pardell looks forward to working more on the Clinical TMS Society’s foundation. The Foundation for the Advancement of Clinical TMS, or FACT, will focus on increasing access to and awareness of TMS. Dr. Pardell hopes the foundation can achieve this by “[providing] TMS in underserved areas throughout the world…and also [providing] grants for research [and] scholarships for fellowships to be a part of our annual meetings and PULSES courses,” he explains.
“It’s been an exciting year and it’s an exciting society to be a part of,” Dr. Pardell says. “Some great people are donating their time and their services to our organization…[and] we are also increasing awareness around the world.”