According to official visitor records, Parkinson's disease experts from Walter Reed National Military Medical Center visited the White House eight times over an eight-month period between last summer and this spring, including at least one meeting with President Biden's physician.
The expert, Dr. Kevin Canard, is a neurologist who specializes in movement disorders and recently published a paper on Parkinson's disease. Records released by the White House document visits from July 2023 through March of this year. Any more recent visits will be made public at a later date, per the White House's voluntary disclosure policy.
It is unclear whether Dr. Canard was at the White House to consult on the president or for an unrelated meeting. Dr. Canard's LinkedIn page states that he has “supported the White House Medical Unit” for over 12 years. His biography on the medical professionals website Doximity lists him as “Neurology Consultant to the White House Medical Unit and Physician to the President” from 2012 to 2022, including in the administrations of Barack Obama and President Donald J. Trump.
Records from the Obama administration, when Biden was vice president, show Canard visited 10 times in 2012, including giving family tours, four times in 2013 and one time in 2014. Records from 2015 and 2016 could not immediately be found online. Trump reversed Obama's policy of voluntary disclosure of White House visitors, so records from his four years in office are not available.
Cannard did not respond to repeated requests for comment. The White House would not comment specifically on the purpose of his recent visit. “Physicians with a wide range of specialties from the Walter Reed system visit White House facilities to care for the thousands of military personnel serving on the grounds,” White House spokesman Andrew Bates said in a statement.
Bates said the president “sees a neurologist once a year as part of his annual physical” but that “his exams have not revealed any signs of Parkinson's disease and he has not been treated for it. He declined to provide dates for Biden's meetings with the specialist but said “he has not seen a neurologist outside of his annual physical, which is three times in total.”
According to the records, Dr. Cannard met with White House physician Dr. Kevin O'Connor, Walter Reed cardiologist Dr. John Atwood and one other individual at the White House Official Residence Clinic on the evening of Jan. 17. The meeting took place a month before Mr. Biden had his most recent annual physical at Walter Reed on Feb. 28.
In a six-page letter released after the medical examination, Dr. O'Connor said the president's medical team conducted an “extremely thorough neurological examination” that “found no findings consistent with Parkinson's disease, stroke, or any other central nervous system disorder.” Dr. O'Connor did not say whether the exam included common tests often recommended for older adults to assess cognitive decline or detect signs of dementia.
The White House recently said it has seen no reason to conduct any further tests since February.Questions about Biden's health, particularly his Parkinson's disease, have skyrocketed since his disastrous performance in the debate with Trump on June 27.In interviews with ABC News on Friday and MSNBC on Monday, Biden said he undergoes the equivalent of daily neurological testing because of the pressures of the presidency.
According to visitor records, which have also been reported by other outlets including the New York Post and the Guardian, Dr Canard's first visit to the White House under the Biden administration was on November 15, 2022. The records show he was visiting Joshua Simmons, but Simmons' title is not listed.
Dr. Cannard's eight most recent visits begin on July 28, 2023, with a meeting recorded with Meghan Nasworthy, the White House liaison to Walter Reed. She is recorded as the destination for seven of the visits, and the meetings always took place on a Friday between 7 and 9 a.m., with the last meeting taking place on Thursday, March 28, the day before Good Friday. Records show a tenth visit, likely for a family tour of the White House.
Around the time of our first meeting, Dr. Canard published a research paper in the journal. Parkinson's disease and related disorders About the early stages of Parkinson's disease.
Neurologists who have not examined Biden in person said they have seen symptoms in his public appearances consistent with Parkinson's or a related disorder, including a hoarse voice, hunched posture, shuffling gait, masked face and erratic speech, but stressed they could not make a specific diagnosis without examining him in person.
White House Press Secretary Bates previously said that Dr. O'Connor had found no reason to retest Biden for Parkinson's since his February medical examination. She also said the president has no signs of Parkinson's disease and has never taken medication such as levodopa.
Biden refused to consent to independent neurological or cognitive testing in an ABC News interview on Friday. “I undergo cognitive testing every day,” he said, implying that the extraordinary challenges of the presidency test him virtually every day.
Appearing on MSNBC's “Morning Joe” on Monday morning, Biden reiterated his insistence that his confusion and halting performance during the debate were an aberration caused by an infection or other minor illness, and not a sign of a larger health problem.
“If something was wrong that night, it's not like it's going to go away overnight,” he said. “So I was out. I've been testing myself, I've been testing everywhere I go. I've been going out and making my case. The night of the debate, I was out. I was out until 2 a.m. that night. It drives me nuts when people are talking about this.”
