2021 Elections: Vice President Candidate Statement

Professor Gustavo Román

I was honored by my nomination as candidate for Vice-President of the World Federation of Neurology (WFN) from the American Academy of Neurology and neurologists from Colombia – my homeland, Brazil, Chile, Honduras, Panama, Uruguay, Spain and France.

My mentor, Prof. Charles Poser, who served as editor of World Neurology in 1960 instilled in me the importance of the WFN in a globalized world.  Over 4 decades, I served two terms as Elected Trustee of the WFN and participated in numerous activities.

I was born in Colombia and as an Intern encountered the challenges of neurologists working in tropical countries: confronting formidable diseases with minimal diagnostic tools and a limited therapeutic arsenal.  With a scholarship I studied at the Salpêtrière in France and learned the enduring value of clinical neurology and neuropathology.  Back in Colombia, I was appointed neurology faculty and wrote two textbooks: Practical Neurology and Tropical Neurology.

I joined Texas Tech University as Professor of Neurology and Interim Chair of Neurology.  In 1990, I was appointed Chief of Neuroepidemiology at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). I published HTLV-1 and the Nervous System; contributed to the diagnostic criteria for vascular dementia and guidelines for epidemiological studies on epilepsy; I co-authored Neurocysticercosis: A Clinical Handbook and participated in a multinational study of epidemic neuropathy in Cuba.  I chronicled this experience in the book Cuban Blindness: Diary of a Mysterious Epidemic Neuropathy.

I returned to teaching at the University of Texas San Antonio as Professor of Neurology, Medicine (Geriatrics), and Geriatric Psychiatry and established the Alzheimer Disease Clinic. In 2010, I was selected the “Jack Blanton Endowed Chair” to organize a new Memory Center at Methodist Neurological Institute where I currently serve as Professor of Neurology, Weill Cornell Medical College, New York, and Texas A&M College of Medicine.

At the beginning of the pandemic, in early 2020, as Chair of the Environmental Neurology Specialty Group of the WFN I proposed creating international neurological registries of COVID-19 among neurological societies worldwide (Lancet Neurology 2020;19:484).  With the Group, I wrote the first comprehensive review on the neurology of COVID-19 (J Neurol Sci 414 (2020) 116884).  These efforts resulted in the formation of scientific groups, such as the global COVID-19 Neuro Research Coalition (Ann Neurol 2021;89:1059).

As Vice-President of the WFN, I pledge to continue addressing the needs of neurologists worldwide during this pandemic, with emphasis on education and accessibility to scientific information to better serve neurological patients.  Nontraditional methods and creative solutions such as tele-medicine that have proven effective during the pandemic may have a myriad of applications in regions of the world with few neurologists. 

We must be ready for future challenges and the WFN is the only institution capable of serving as link of union and coordinating core for neurologists around the world.  As Vice-President, I pledge to advance the goals and mission of the WFN in forging the future of neurology around the world.