ALS Learning Series

In our November ALS Learning Series about hope with Dr. Richard Bedlack will review what he has learned about hope in health and diseases, including ALS.  He’ll talk about why it matters, where it comes from, what clinicians do to boost and to suppress it, and how he is trying to optimize it in his own clinic.

About the Speaker: Richard Bedlack, MD, PhD 

Stewart, Hughes, and Wendt Distinguished Professor of ALS at Duke 

Director of the Duke ALS Clinic  

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 Ph.D. 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 the Stewart, Hughes, and Wendt Distinguished Professor of ALS at Duke and Director of the Duke ALS Clinic. He has won awards for teaching and patient care, received ALS research grants, participated in ALS clinical trials, and published more than 160 ALS articles.  He is the leader of the international ALSUntangled program which utilizes social networking to investigate alternative and off-label treatment options for patients with ALS, and leader of the ALS Reversals program which attempts to understand why some people with ALS recover from it, and to make this happen more often. He lives in Durham, North Carolina with his wife Shelly, two mischievous cats, and a closet full of eye-catching blazers.