Richard S. Isaacson
Richard S. Isaacson is an American neurologist who focuses on the prevention and treatment of Alzheimer's disease and dementia. He founded the first Alzheimer's prevention clinic in The U.S. at Weill Cornell Medicine and NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital in New York City.
Early life and education
Isaacson was raised in Commack, New York. He graduated from Commack High School and enrolled at the age of 17 at the University of Missouri–Kansas City where he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in liberal arts at the age of 19, and his medical degree at the age of 23. Isaacson completed his internship at the University of Miami and residency at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical School.
Career
Isaacson is a neurologist focused on the prevention and treatment of Alzheimer's disease and dementia. He has been the director of the Alzheimer's Prevention Clinic in the Center for Brain Health at Florida Atlantic University's (FAC) Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine. He is the director of research at the Institute for Neurodegenerative Diseases (IND) in Boca Raton, Florida. He founded and was director of the nation's first clinic focused on Alzheimer's prevention at Weill Cornell Medicine and NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital in New York City in 2013, before relocating the program to Florida in 2021.
As part of the clinic's Alzheimer's Disease and Memory Disorders Program, Isaacson helped create customized treatment plans for people who have completed genetic testing and showed a greater risk of developing Alzheimer's disease.
Isaacson authored the 2012 book Alzheimer's Treatment, Alzheimer's Prevention: A Patient and Family Guide, at which time he was the associate professor of clinical neurology, vice chair of education, and education director of the McKnight Brain Institute in the neurology department at the University of Miami's Miller School of Medicine.
He and Christopher N. Ochner later wrote The Alzheimer's Prevention and Treatment Diet: Using Nutrition to Combat the Effects of Alzheimer's Disease (2016).
Sanjay Gupta has described Isaacson as "a pioneer in preventive therapies for dementia".
In 2022, Isaacson was an adjunct associate professor of neurology at Weill Cornell.
He has been a member of the board of trustees of the McKnight Brain Research Foundation and the scientific advisory board of Pershing Square Philanthropies.
He is the director of the Precision Prevention Program at Atria Health Institute.
Research
According to CNN, Isaacson's research "has shown that following a dozen or more lifestyle interventions, when practiced 60% or more of the time, can improve cognitive function, especially in women". A 2019 study by his team at the Alzheimer's Prevention Clinic found cognitive function could be improved from exercise, medication, nutrition, and lowering vascular risk.
Isaacson and his team at Weill Cornell led the first study "to define [...] differences in outcomes of tailored Alzheimer's disease clinical interventions", according to SciTech. The study assessed the Comparative Effectiveness Dementia and Alzheimer's Registry (CEDAR) trial led by Isaacson at Weill Medicine in 2015. The team analyzed results in 80 "higher-compliance" participants from the original group of 154, then published findings in the Journal of Prevention of Alzheimer's Disease in 2022 showing "risk reduction care led to greater cognitive improvements in women than men", according to The Independent. In Nature, he and his team have described the cognitive benefits of aerobic exercise, a plant-based diet, quality sleep, strength training, and stress management.
As of 2024, Isaacson was conducting an online National Institutes of Health-funded clinical trial to provide cognitive tests and personalized recommendations via smartphones. In 2025, CNN said his research team and partners at five locations in the U.S. and Canada "set forth to evaluate and eventually cross-compare the clinical use of" what Isaacson said could become "the cholesterol test for the brain". His team at the IND is studying approximately 125 individual markers from various commercial and research-based tests.
Personal life
Isaacson has had multiple family members who were diagnosed with Alzheimer's, which influenced his decision to specialize in prevention and treatment of the disease.
See also
- List of neurologists and neurosurgeons
- List of University of Missouri–Kansas City people
External media
- Dr. Gupta discovers the results of an Alzheimer’s risk test, The Last Alzheimer's Patient (CNN, 2024)