Dr. Kara M. Smith is Division Chief of the Movement Disorders Division in the Department of Neurology at Boston Medical Center and a Clinical Associate Professor at Boston University Chobanian and Avedisian School of Medicine. She currently serves as the Program Director of the Movement disorders Fellowship Program at Boston Medical Center. She is board-certified in Neurology and is a fellowship-trained Movement disorders Specialist.

Dr. Smith completed a Neurology residency at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center/Harvard Medical School. She completed her Movement disorders Fellowship at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. She currently provides clinical care for patients living with Parkinson’s disease, atypical parkinsonism, tremor, tics, chorea, and dystonia at Boston Medical Center and BU Neurology Associates. She has experience with deep brain stimulation utilization and programming, and also provides botulinum toxin injections for Movement disorders. Her approach to patient care is personalized, whole-person centered, and she strives to incorporate the latest evidence and technologies to benefit all patients with Movement disorders.

As a clinician-scientist dedicated to advancing clinical research in Parkinson’s disease, Dr. Smith has over ten years of research experience. She earned a M.S. in Clinical Investigation at the Morningside Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences at the University of Massachusetts. She is a credentialed investigator of the Parkinson Study Group, and has served as PI on numerous industry-sponsored clinical trials.

Her research is focused on cognitive impairment and speech/communication symptoms in Parkinson’s disease. She is also interested in novel technologies to remotely monitor patients with Movement disorders, and the effects of pharmacologic and non-pharmacologic therapies, including music therapy and exercise, on these disorders. She has been awarded research funding from the National Institutes of Health, the Michael J. Fox Foundation, and philanthropic donors.