In their article "Profile of Functional Limitations and Task Performance Among People With Early- and Middle-Stage Parkinson Disease" (September 2011), Dr Margaret Schenkman, PT, PhD, FAPTA, and colleagues used cross-sectional data from 5 different studies to summarize the expected values, by disease stage, of variety of tests and measures used to quantify the functional performance of people in the early and middle stages of Parkinson disease (PD). According to Schenkman, this database of typical values will allow clinicians and researchers to interpret the functional status of individual patients and study participants with PD. In this podcast, Schenkman is joined by Kathleen Gill-Body, PT, DPT, NCS, a neurologic clinical specialist and a member of PTJ's Editorial Board, and PTJ Editor-in-Chief Rebecca Craik, PT, PhD, FAPTA, to discuss how benchmarks can best be used in clinical practice. Can these data be used for goal setting and prognosis? Are certain measures more appropriate for particular stages of PD? Would a combination of measures, rather than a single measure, better identify early functional deterioration in people with PD?