ALS Crowd Radio: Dr. Richard Bedlack,MD, PhD, MS Duke University: ALS Reversals

S2:E4 Dr. Richard Bedlack, MD will describe the ALS Reversals program in detail.  Once it starts, ALS almost always continues to progress, disable and shorten lives. Very rarely, a patient with a confirmed diagnosis of ALS gets better on validated ALS outcome measures.  It is worth studying these ALS reversals to try and replicate them in other patients.

Dr. Richard Bedlack, grew up in a small town in central Connecticut. He went to college at William and Mary in Virginia, then back to Connecticut for an MD and PhD in Neuroscience at UConn. Finally, he came to Duke where he completed his Medicine Internship, Neurology Residency, Neuromuscular Fellowship, and Masters in Clinical Research Science. He is currently a tenured Associate Professor of Medicine/Neurology at Duke, Director of the Duke ALS Clinic, and Chief of Neurology at the Durham Veterans Affairs Medical Center. He has won awards for teaching and patient care, including best Neurology teacher at Duke, Health Care Hero, Strength Hope and Caring Award, America’s Best Doctor, the American Academy of Neurology Patient Advocate of the Year and the Rasmussen ALS Patient Advocate of the Year. He has received ALS research grants, participated in ALS clinical trials, published more than 60 ALS articles and recently edited a new book called ALS: A Patient Care Guide for Clinicians. He is the outgoing Chairman of the North American ALS Research Group (ALSRG) and leader of the international ALSUntangled program which utilizes social networking to investigate alternative and off label treatment options for patients with ALS. He lives in Durham, North Carolina with his wife Shelly and two mischievous kittens.