Penn neurologist honored for sharing expertise with developing nations

In June, the National Assembly of Ecuador gave Donald Silberberg, an emeritus professor of neurology at the University Pennsylvania medical school, its highest scientific award, the first such honor for an American.

The Vicente Rocafuerte medal was given in recognition of Silberberg’s efforts over two decades to enhance medical education and improve patient care for neurological and psychiatric conditions in Ecuador as well as around the world.

“I was honored and really pleased,” Silberberg said in his office recently.

The medal was a tribute to a physician and educator who has worked to ameliorate diseases of the brain and nervous system, especially in developing countries.

“He is one of the few leaders in neurology who has had a profound effect on neurological care and healing around the world,” says Mohamad Rostami, chairman of the department of neurology at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital.

Neurological disorders – headaches, brain tumors, strokes, head trauma, psychiatric problems such as schizophrenia and depression – cause a quarter to a third of global death and disability, Silberberg says. Cerebral palsy, mental retardation, and epilepsy are much more common in developing countries. In some nations, epilepsy alone is 10 times more frequent, likely because of early-childhood infections, head trauma, and cerebral malaria.

Neurology deals with disorders of the brain, spinal cord, nerves, and muscles. At Penn, Silberberg, 78, still conducts research, lectures around the world, and comes to the office three or four days a week.

He prompted the National Institutes of Health to launch a grants program that enables international investigators to cooperate in studying and exploring solutions to neurological issues. So far, the NIH has funded more than 125 grants under the program.

In 2003, Silberberg was recruited by the National Security Council to formulate a plan for a pediatric hospital in Basra, in southern Iraq.

The $150 million hospital, the first to be built in Iraq since the 1980s, was completed last year and is now fully staffed. Says Silberberg: “It’s one of the best things the U.S. has done there.”

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Penn neurologist honored for sharing expertise with developing nations