Patricio F. Reyes

PATRICIO F. REYES, M.D.

Dr. Patricio F. Reyes, a board certified neurologist and
neuropathologist, recently moved to Phoenix, Arizona to assume
directorship of the Alzheimer’s Disease and Cognitive
Disorders Program at Barrow neurological Institute-St. Joseph
Hospital and Medical Center, voted as 9th best out of 6,012 US
hospitals. Before joining Barrow, he was Professor of
Neurology, Pathology and Psychiatry, and Director of the
Center for Aging, Alzheimer’s Disease and Neurodegenerative
Disorders at Creighton University School of Medicine in Omaha,
Nebraska. He held similar positions at Jefferson Medical
College in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and University of Texas in
San Antonio. He was one of the first to establish rapid autopsy
brain banking in the United Satiates and the first to build
Alzheimer’s disease and Dementia Centers in Texas,
Pennsylvania and Nebraska.

His works on Aging and Alzheimer’s disease allowed him to play a role in the development of thefirst
drug approved by the US FDA for Alzheimer’s disease. For several years he was a member of the AD
Hoc Committee that helped establish Alzheimer’s disease research centers in the US. He has been
a recipient of grants from the National Institutes of Health, National Institute of Aging, US Veterans
Administration, William Penn Foundation, numerous pharmaceutical companies, Nebraska health
department, Creighton University Health Foundation and Barrow Neurological Institute Foundation.

Dr. Reyes, who often introduces himself as a country “doc”, obtained his bachelor’s and medical
degrees from the University of the Philippines College of Medicine in Manila. In medical school he
was a Rosendo Llamas scholar from 1966 to 1999. Determined to train and practice in the
Philippines, he started his residency in Internal Medicine at the Philippine General Hospital and after
a year shifted to Neurology. He recalls that his hopes to remain in the Philippines were shattered by
the Marcos dictatorship and imposition of martial law during his training. He left the country to pursue
an academic career in the US and has always considered leaving the Philippines the most painful
decision he had to make in his professional career. In the US, he subsequently trained in Adult and
Pediatric Neurology, Anatomic Pathology and Neuropathology at the University of Kentucky Medical
Center, Massachusetts General Hospital and University of Miami Jackson Memorial Hospital. As a
fellow at the University of Miami he described the first female case of Adrenoleukodystrophy, a fatal
CNS disease, previously known to occur only in males, and received the Alfred L. Lewis Pathology
research award for his work on “Thanatophoric Dwarfism.”

He began his academic career in 1980 as Assistant Professor of Neurology and Pathology at the
University of Texas in San Antonio and Chief of Neurology and Audie Murphy VA Hospital. While in
Texas, he trained Neurology residents of Brooks Army Hospital and Wilford Hall of the USAF. His
pioneering studies on Aluminum neurotoxicity, and sleep apnea and dementia as well as his
success in establishing one of , if not the first Dementia Clinic and Brain bank in the country attracted
the attention of major medical institutions. Two years later, he elected to join Jefferson Medical
College in Philadelphia where he built Pennsylvania’s first Alzheimer’s Disease and Dementia
Center and Brain Bank, and assumed directorship of the Neuropathology division. He rose from the
ranks, became Professor of Neurology and Pathology, and was the sole recipient of the Bernard
Alpers Professorship. “ I grew up in Philadelphia, “ he recalls. Our team in collaboration with
colleagues at the University of Pennsylvania were the first to describe the taste and smell
abnormalities in Alzheimer’s disease, an observation that led to heightened interest in the
development and application of smell tests that currently used worldwide. “With hard work I was
given the opportunity to share ideas and work with some of the nation’s leading scientists and
clinicians from very fine institutions.” I also had the privilege of helping build centers in Hungary, South
America, Asia and various states in the US. He was one of the major US investigators to develop the
first pharmacologic treatment of Alzheimer’s disease and other memory related disorders. He
continues to help test the safety and efficacy of new drugs for neurodegenerative diseases.

Most importantly, Dr. Reyes has been the advocate for identifying as well as improving the health care
needs of all ethnic groups in the US. Some of his programs have provided educational and medical
information and training to lay people and health care professionals. In a recent governor’s
conference in Nebraska he discussed the frequently ignored disparities in both access to and
delivery of health care to ethnic minorities. His dedication to such issues is evidenced by the support
he has garnered from civic, business and governmental institutions, and his recent selection as one
of the American Academy of Neurology’s 2005 Donald Palatucci Leadership Advocates.

As a teacher, Dr. Reyes has taught numerous students, residents and fellows in classroom and
bedside settings in various medical schools in the US and other countries. He had been a visiting
professor at the UP College of Medicine in Manila, University of Santo Tomas, Zeged University in
Hungary, University of Alexandria in Egypt, University of Jakarta and Peking Medical School in China.

His accomplishments as a teacher, clinician, scientist and community leader have been affirmed by
his selection as “Best Doctors of American in 2003-2004, Scientist of the 21st Century, and the
Republican party’s Ronald Reagan Gold Medal awardee in 2004, Businessman of the year for 2005
and Physician of the Year for 2005.