A Parkinson’s disease expert from the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center visited the White House eight times in eight months from last summer to this spring, including at least once for a meeting with President Biden’s doctor, according to the official visitor log.
The expert, Dr. Kevin Cannard, is a neurologist who specializes in movement disorders and recently published a paper on Parkinson’s. The log, released by the White House, documents visits from July 2023 to March of this year. More recent visits, if any, will not be released until later in accordance with the White House’s voluntary disclosure policy.
It is unclear whether Dr. Cannard was at the White House for special consultations on the president or for unrelated meetings. LinkedIn page Dr. Cannard described him as “supporting the White House Medical Unit” for more than 12 years. A biography on Doximity, a website for health professionals, lists him as a “neurology consultant to the White House Medical Unit and physician to the president” from 2012 to 2022, which includes the administrations of Presidents Barack Obama and Donald J. Trump. .
Records from the Obama administration, when Mr. Biden was vice president, show that Dr. Cannard made 10 visits in 2012 plus a family tour; four visits in 2013; and one in 2014. Records could not be immediately found online for 2015 or 2016. Mr. Trump rescinded Mr. Obama’s voluntary White House visitor disclosure policy, making records unavailable during his four years in office.
Dr. Cannard did not respond to repeated requests for comment. The White House did not comment specifically on the purpose of the recent visit. “Various specialists from the Walter Reed system visited the White House complex to treat thousands of military personnel working in the field,” White House spokesman Andrew Bates said in a statement.
Mr Bates said the president “has been seen by a neurologist once a year” as part of his overall annual physical examination and “the examination found no signs of Parkinson’s and he was not treated.” He declined to give a date for any meeting between Mr. Biden and any specialist, but said “there are no neurologist visits other than annual physicals, three in total.”
Dr. Cannard met on January 17 with Dr. Kevin O’Connor, the White House physician, as well as Dr. John Atwood, a cardiologist at Walter Reed, and others that evening at the White House home clinic, the logs show. The meeting comes a month before Mr. Biden has his latest annual physical at Walter Reed on Feb. 28.
In a six-page letter released after the review, Dr. O’Connor said the president’s medical team had performed a “very detailed neurological exam” that produced “no findings consistent with” Parkinson’s, stroke or other central nervous system disorders. . Dr. O’Connor did not say whether the examination contained the common tests to assess cognitive decline or detect signs of dementia that are often recommended for older people.
The White House has said in recent days that there is no reason to conduct further inspections since February. Questions about Mr. Biden’s health, and specifically about Parkinson’s, have abounded since his disastrous debate performance against Mr. Trump on June 27. In interviews with ABC News on Friday and MSNBC on Monday, Mr. Biden said he had the same neurological problem. daily exams due to the pressure of the president’s duties.
Visitor logs, which have also been reported by other news organizations, including The New York Post and The Guardian, show that Dr. Cannard’s visit to the White House during the Biden administration is Nov. 15, 2022, records show. that he visited Joshua Simmons, whose title is not listed.
Eight visits Dr. Cannard more recently started on July 28, 2023, when he was listed as meeting with Megan Nasworthy, the White House liaison to Walter Reed. He is listed as an open person for seven of these meetings, which consistently occur early, between 7 and 9 o’clock on Fridays, except for the last meeting, which occurs on Thursday, March 28, the day before Good Friday. The log records the 10th visit that appears to be for a family tour of the White House.
Around the time of the first meeting, Dr. Cannard published a research paper in the journal Parkinsonism & related disorders in the early stages of Parkinson’s.
A number of neurologists who have not personally examined Mr. Biden said they saw symptoms in his public appearance consistent with Parkinson’s or related diseases, such as hypophonic speech, forward flexed posture, shuffling gait, masked face and irregular speech patterns. But he emphasized that a specific diagnosis cannot be given without direct examination.
Mr. Bates, the White House spokesman, previously said that Dr. Mr Bates also said the president had shown no signs of Parkinson’s and had never taken Levodopa or any other medication for the condition.
In an interview with ABC News on Friday, Mr. Biden disagreed with an independent neurological and cognitive exam. “I get cognitive tests every day,” he said, implying that the extraordinary challenges of the presidency effectively test him every day.
Calling into MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” on Monday morning, Mr. Biden reiterated that his confusion and stoppage in the debate were aberrations due to an infection or other minor illness, and not a sign of a larger medical problem. .
“If something goes wrong that night, it’s not like it comes and goes one night,” he said. “That’s why I’ve come out. I’ve tried it myself, tried it everywhere. Going out and making a case. The night of the debate, I walked out. I was out until 2 in the morning that night. That night. This confuses me, people talk about it.
