Dr. Richard S. Isaacson, MD
Dr. Isaacson served as director of the Alzheimer’s Prevention Clinic (APC), Weill Cornell Memory Disorders Program, assistant dean of faculty development, and associate professor of neurology at Weill Cornell Medicine & New York-Presbyterian. With his robust clinical practice and broad background in computer science, m-Health, biotechnology, and web development, he led interwoven clinical research and technology teams at the APC. Isaacson’s team rigorously evaluated the effects of personalized, evidence-based multi-modal interventions on cognition, serum/radiologic biomarkers of AD, and calculated AD and cardiovascular risk.
Isaacson has published novel methods for using a precision medicine approach in real-world clinical practice of risk reduction for AD. He served as principal investigator (PI) for the APC Comparative Effectiveness Dementia & Alzheimer’s study and has served as PI and/or co-PI on several past AD research grants related to AD prevention, treatment, and education.
“Alzheimer’s disease has impacted me on a personal level including my uncle Bob who was diagnosed while I was in high school as well as my cousin who was diagnosed about 15 years ago,” said Isaacson. “I am passionate about applying a comprehensive approach toward both the prevention of Alzheimer’s disease and more recently Parkinson’s and Lewy Body dementia.”
Before his tenure at Weill Cornell Medicine, Isaacson previously served as associate professor of clinical neurology, vice chair of education, and education director of the McKnight Brain Institute in the Department of Neurology at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine.
He completed his residency in neurology at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center/Harvard Medical School, and his medical internship at Mount Sinai Medical Center in Miami Beach. Before he joined the University of Miami, he served as associate medical director of the Wien Center for Alzheimer’s disease and Memory Disorders at Mount Sinai.
Isaacson led the development of Alzheimer’s Universe (AlzU.org) a vast online education research portal on AD (more than 2 million unique visitors) with results published in the Journal of the Prevention of Alzheimer’s Disease; Journal of Communication in Healthcare, Alzheimer’s & Dementia: Translational Research & Clinical Interventions; and Neurology.