2017 Paper of the Year Award Winner: Richard Finkel, MD

Richard Finkel, MD

Nemours Children’s Hospital

Talk Title: Treatment of Infantile-onset Spinal Muscular Atrophy with Nusinersen: a Phase 2, Open-label, Dose-escalation Study

Biography: Richard S. Finkel, MD is Professor of Neurology at the University of Central Florida School of Medicine, and Chief, Division of Neurology at Nemours Children’s Hospital in Orlando, USA. He received his medical degree from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, and completed his Pediatrics, Neurology and Neuromuscular training at Boston Children’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston. Clinical practice and research interests have focused upon pediatric neuromuscular disorders, especially spinal muscular atrophy, Duchenne muscular dystrophy, inherited neuropathies and neurometabolic disorders. Dr. Finkel has participated in numerous clinical trials, natural history genotype-phenotype studies, development of outcome measures, clinical trial design, standard-of-care topics and biomarker identification for neuromuscular disorders. Interest in SMA has included a focus on infants with type I – from natural history studies and the development of the CHOP INTEND motor scale to clinical trial topics and ethical issues. He has published over 120 peer reviewed manuscripts and book chapters and is an associate editor of neuromuscular journals and a pediatric neurology textbook. Dr. Finkel is a Fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Neurological Association, and is a member of the World Muscle Society, TREAT-NMD, American Academy of Neurology and Child Neurology Society. He serves as an advisor to Cure SMA, SMA Foundation and SMA Europe.