STAND. COM. REP. NO. 577

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2025

RE: H.B. No. 952

H.D. 1

Honorable Nadine K. Nakamura

Speaker, House of Representatives

Thirty-Third State Legislature

Regular Session of 2025

State of Hawaii

Madame:

Your Committee on Health, to which was referred H.B. No. 952 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO PARKINSON'S DISEASE RESEARCH,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to establish a Parkinson's Disease Research Collection Database within the Department of Health.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Hawaiʻi Family Caregiver Coalition; Speech, Swallowing, & Voice Specialists of Hawaii; Hawaiʻi Parkinson Association; The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research; Hawaiʻi Speech-Language-Hearing Association; Parkinson's Foundation; The Queen's Health Systems; and numerous individuals. Your Committee received comments on this measure from the Department of Health.

Your Committee finds that Parkinson's disease is a neurodegenerative disease that affects approximately one million people in the United States. There is no cure or treatment to stop or reverse the progression of the disease. Your Committee further finds that collecting critical research data is the first step to better understanding Parkinson's disease, particularly with respect to estimating the incidence and prevalence of Parkinson's disease across various population groups. Your Committee believes that establishing a data collection database on the incidences of Parkinson's disease in the State will greatly assist public health agencies in identifying trends across various population groups and help improve provider education, improve understanding of the disease, and assess treatment effectiveness over time.

Your Committee has amended this measure by:

(1) Changing the effective date to July 1, 3000, to encourage further discussion; and

(2) Making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for the purposes of clarity, consistency, and style.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Health that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 952, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 952, H.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Finance.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Health,

____________________________

GREGG TAKAYAMA, Chair