Request for Review – Project Fionigan and Disability Continuity of Care
Dear Governor Youngkin's Constituent Services Team,
My name is Joseph Korzen, and I am a Virginia resident from the Fredericksburg area. I am writing to respectfully ask your office to review a project that grew out of my own five-year neurological journey and that I believe could improve accessibility, communication, and continuity of care for patients across the Commonwealth.
In 2026, I presented Abstract #178 at the 6th International Functional Neurological Disorder Society (FNDS) Conference in Baltimore. My presentation documented a five-year longitudinal case involving cerebral palsy, NIH-documented Functional Neurological Disorder (FND), communication breakdowns, and significant continuity-of-care failures that ultimately resulted in emergency psychiatric escalation despite an existing neurological diagnosis.
Those experiences led me to develop Project Fionigan.
Project Fionigan is an accessibility-first continuity framework designed to help critical medical information follow the patient when speech, movement, cognition, fatigue, pain, or neurological symptoms make communication unreliable. It is not intended to diagnose or replace clinicians. Its purpose is to preserve continuity, improve communication, and reduce preventable failures that occur when complex patients move between providers or lose the ability to effectively advocate for themselves.
Since presenting at the conference, the project has continued to evolve. It is now becoming a longitudinal patient case study that raises broader research questions regarding accessibility, continuity of care, rehabilitation, disability accommodation, and patient-provider communication.
I have also pursued every administrative avenue available to me, including complaints through the Virginia Department of Health and other appropriate agencies. Regardless of the outcome of my individual case, I believe Project Fionigan presents an opportunity for Virginia to lead in disability accessibility, patient communication, and continuity of care.
I respectfully ask if someone within your office would be willing to review the project and determine whether it may be beneficial to share with the appropriate health, accessibility, innovation, or policy staff.
Project Fionigan:
https://www.projectfionigan.com
Thank you for your time, your consideration, and your service to the Commonwealth of Virginia. I would welcome the opportunity to answer any questions or provide additional documentation if requested.
Respectfully,
Joseph William Korzen
Fredericksburg, Virginia