Dr. Andrew M. Blumenfeld, MD

Dr. Blumenfeld focuses on addressing the multi-faceted needs of headache sufferers. These needs include acute care, educational programs and other specialty services. This comprehensive approach treats the whole person in a highly individualized manner and addresses the growing demand for one-stop treatment services.

Dr. Blumenfeld has published widely and has been an active researcher in headaches and multiple sclerosis.

Dr. Blumenfeld was also a principal investigator of the largest research study showing that Botulinum toxin type A, known as Botox, is an effective preventive therapy for headache pain in chronic sufferers. He has since accrued strong experience in Botox therapy, yet continues to be active in studies that evaluate a wide range of therapies.

He believes in an individualized, patient-centered approach that empowers patients to take control of their own health care. This requires that they are fully informed about alternative therapies, and that physicians and patients make joint decisions about treatment, based on lifestyles and other medical factors. In this capacity, he regularly addresses national pharmaceutical meetings, medical conferences, continuing education seminars, and community events.

An avid bicyclist, he participated in the Race Across America in 2003 and 2004. He also enjoys running and spending time with his family.

Board Certifications

• American Board of Psychiatry & Neurology, Neurology, 1991

Medical Education

• University of Witwatersrand, MD, 1981

Residencies

• University of Massachusetts Medical Center, Neurology, 1989

Fellowships

• University of Massachusetts Medical Center, Neurophysiology, 1990

Prof. Christoph Kleinschnitz

Specialist for Neurology in Essen

Prof. Kleinschnitz has acquired an immense reputation above all as a proven stroke expert. As the head of Germany's oldest stroke unit, the experienced neurologist knows that every minute counts when a stroke occurs - and he is also considered an absolute pioneer in interdisciplinary cooperation.

Christoph Kleinschnitz studied medicine at the University of Wurzburg (1994 to 2000). Following his doctorate (2001), he worked at the University Neurology Clinic in Wurzburg for several years and qualified as a neurology specialist in 2007. In 2009, he was made the Head of the Stroke Unit and the Out-patients’ Clinic there, where cerebrovascular accidents and disorders of the blood vessels supplying the brain are treated. From 2010, he also led the Clinical Research Group for MS and Neuroimmunology. Before he came to the University Hospital, Essen, he was a Professor and Executive Consultant at the University Hospital, Wurzburg. He has received several prizes for his pioneering work.

Prof. Dawn C. Buse

Dawn C. Buse PhD is a Clinical Professor of Neurology at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York City, an Assistant Professor in the Clinical Health Psychology Doctoral Program of Ferkauf Graduate School of Psychology and was the Director of Behavioral Medicine at the Montefiore Headache Center from 2006-2018.  She is a licensed psychologist and is a Board Member and a fellow of the American Headache Society (AHS).

Dr. Buse conducts research on migraine, pain and stress among other conditions and is a co-investigator on the American Migraine Prevalence and Prevention (AMPP) Study, the Chronic Migraine Epidemiology and Outcomes (CAMEO) Study, the International Burden of Migraine (IBMS) Study, the Migraine, Symptoms and Treatment in America (MAST) Study and the Migraine Signature Study.  She has coauthored more than 100 manuscripts in peer reviewed scientific journals, 54 review articles and book chapters and more than 400 scientific abstracts.  Her manuscripts have won the American Headache Society’s “Wolff Award” twice (2008 and 2018), the Italian Society for the Study of Headache’s “Enrico Greppi Award” twice (2009 and 2017), the British Medical Journal’s “Patient’s Choice Award”, and the 2015 “Headache Reader’s Choice” Award.  In 2009 she won the National Headache Foundation, "Partners in Excellence" Award and in 2016 she won the American Headache Society “Seymour Solomon” Award.

After earning a master’s degree and a doctorate in psychology from the University of Utah, Dr. Buse completed an internship in medical psychology in the Boston VA Medical System and Harvard Medical School and 3 years of postdoctoral fellowships in adult and pediatric headache and pain management at Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital, Massachusetts General Hospital, Children’s Hospital, Boston, and Harvard Medical School.

Dr. Buse mentors graduate students in the Ferkauf Doctoral Health Psychology program.  Dr. Buse is the psychological and behavioral section editor for Current Pain and Headache Reports and she serves on the advisory board of the Journal of Headache and Pain, Pain Management News, and Pain Pathways Magazine.  She is on the American Headache Society Board of Directors and Electronic Media Committee, and the American Academy of Neurology Digital Strategy Subcommittee.

As a clinical psychologist, Dr. Buse uses biobehavioral techniques which include cognitive behavioral therapy, guided visual imagery, biofeedback and mindfulness training.

Prof. Dr. Mag.  Eugen Trinka

Professor Dr. Eugen Trinka, born in Salzburg, Austria in 1963 is currently Chairman of the Department of Neurology at the CDK, Paracelsus Medical University Salzburg, Austria. He received his MD degree from the University of Vienna and his Medical Education at the General Hospital in Salzburg and Hospital for Nervous Diseases (CDK) Salzburg, Austria. He further received his MSc in Public Health Sciences and Technology from the UMIT Hall in Tirol in 2005.

After a research fellowship at the Montreal Neurological Institute, McGill, Montreal Canada, in 1998/1999 he was appointed as Head of the EEG – laboratory and Epilepsy‐Monitoring‐Unit of the Department of Neurology Innsbruck, Medical University Austria, where he build up continuously the largest outpatient clinics for Epilepsy patients in Austria and a successful epilepsy surgery program.

He became deputy chair of the Department of Neurology in Innsbruck in 2003. Professor Trinka was appointed as Chairman of Neurology at the Parcelsus University in April 2010, where he started to build up an epilepsy service of excellence again.  He has been active in the Austrian Chapter of the International League against Epilepsy since 1993, where he served as a member of the Scientific Advisory Board, as the 2nd secretary since 2000, as the 1st secretary since 2004 and as the president since 2012. He became an elected member of the CEA, where he has worked as Treasurer in the current term 2009 – 2013.  

He is also an active member of various task forces of the ILAE, included the Task Force on Regulatory Affairs of AED’s, Task Force on Classification of Status Epilepticus (Co‐Chair), Task Force on Neuropathology and the Task force on Drug Development.  His main research interests are cortical dysplasia, status epilepticus and drug development, cognitive neurosciences and neurophysiology as well as public health.  He has authored and co‐authored more than 180 peer reviewed publications and several book chapters.

Dr. Martin Ruttledge

Dr Ruttledge is a consultant neurologist at the Beaumont Hospital and the Hermitage Medical Clinic, both in Dublin (Ireland). He specialises in treating patients with migraine and other primary headache disorders. He obtained his medical degree from Trinity College (Dublin, Ireland) and his PhD from the Karolinska Institute (Stockholm, Sweden). He trained as a neurologist in a number of hospitals in London (UK) and spent part of his time there as a trainee with Prof. Peter Goadsby.

Dr Ruttledge spends the majority of his time working as a clinician, seeing patients with migraine and other headache disorders. He routinely reviews 60–70 headache patients each week and operates specialised headache clinics in both of the hospitals where he works.

He provides specialised headache outpatient and inpatient treatments, including greater occipital nerve blocks, onabotulinum toxin A injections (using the PREEMPT protocol), intravenous dihydroergotamine and lidocaine, and neuromodulation.

Martin is the chair of this year’s International Headache Congress meeting and is very excited about welcoming the international headache community to Ireland.

Dr Martin Ruttledge, Consultant Neurologist at the Hermitage Medical Clinic has launched a quick reference guide to migraine, which he co-authored with Dr Mary Kearney and Esther Tomkins, published by the Irish College of General Practitioners (ICGP).

Dr Ruttledge, said about 40 per cent of all females would get migraine at some stage in their lives and that the World Health Organisation now considered migraine the second most disabling medical condition of all non-fatal diseases.

“Our statistics are getting worse and worse as time goes on. We think there’s probably about three quarters of a million migraineurs in Ireland, hopefully most of them not very disabled,” he said.

He said the disability could not be seen on scans or measured by blood tests or X-rays. “It’s all about just sitting and talking to the patients,” he said.

A 2017 report by the European Brain Council said that for each million of the population, Europe loses an estimated 400,000 days from work or school every year to migraine alone. It estimated the cost of headache disorders was well in excess of €100 billion per year.

Prof. Peter Rieckmann

Prof. Rieckmann is a leading German Neurologist with over 25 years professional clinical experience in Germany, Canada and the Gulf region. He has an excellent track record both treating patients with neurological diseases as well as an outstanding clinician scientist.

Prof. Rieckmann is board certified in Germany, Canada and UAE. He received his degree in medicine from the university of Göttingen (Germany) and graduated with distinction. After a postdoctoral fellowship at the National Institues of Health (NIH) in the US, he completed his training in neurology at the National Hospital for Nervous Diseases in London (UK) and the University of Göttingen. He became senior consultant in Neurology as well as clinical research group leader at the University of Würzburg (Germany).

Supported by his passionate care for patients with neurological diseases and based on his successful research work as a clinician scientist he became the Multiple Sclerosis Society of Canada Research Chair in Vancouver, where he developed innovative treatment strategies and teaching concepts for patient engagement.

After his return to Germany Prof. Rieckmann has worked as head of the department of neurology at the academic teaching hospital in Bamberg and recently established the first German center for clinical neuroplasticity at Medical Park in Bavaria. He has over 250 scientific papers to his account.

Prof. Rieckmann has academic affiliation with the university of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada and the university of Erlangen, Germany. He enjoys teaching neurology at various academic institutions across the globe and received several awards for his research, lecture activity and patient engagement. Prof. Rieckmann‘ breath of experience in the whole spectrum of neurological diseases is supported by his continuous acute care inpatient service, busy outpatients clinics and neurorehabilitation counselling.

He has particular experience in assessing and treating patient with the following neurological conditions:

– Multiple sclerosis and related disorders
– Stroke and other neurovascular diseases
– Epilepsies
– Parkinson disease and other movement disorders
– Headache
– Chronic pain (including back pain and neuropathic pain)
– Neuromuscular diseases
– Immunological diseases of the nervous system
– Infectious diseases of the central nervous system
– Brain tumors and other aspects of neurooncology
– Dementia and other neurodegenerative diseases
– Neurorehabilitation and clinical neuroplasticity
– Sport neurology
– Neurological diseases in musician

Prof Rieckmann is actively involved in planning and conducting international clinical trials to constantly improve the clinical condition for patients with multiple sclerosis, stroke, brain tumors, chronic pain and Parkinson disease.

Richard B. Lipton, M.D.

Richard is the Edwin S. Lowe Professor and Vice Chair of Neurology, Professor of Epidemiology and Population Health and Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. Dr. Lipton earned his medical degree at the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine. After a medical internship at Northwestern Memorial Hospital, he completed his neurology residency and clinical neurophysiology fellowship at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. He also completed a fellowship in neuroepidemiology at Columbia University. He is a diplomate of the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology and a fellow of the American Academy of Neurology.

His research focuses on cognitive aging, Alzheimer’s disease and migraine headaches. He is the Principal Investigator of the Einstein Aging Study, an NIH funded Program Project, and collaborates on several R01s.  His research focuses on risk factors and biomarkers of cognitive decline and Alzheimer’s disease. His recent studies examine cognitive aging across the lifespan with an emphasis on the effects of pain and stress on brain function.

His headache research focuses on the epidemiology of migraine and on clinical trials.  His epidemiologic studies have evaluated trigger factors for headache attacks and risk factors for headache progression. Dr. Lipton has published more than 800 original articles, many with trainees.  He is a 5 time winner of the H.G. Wolff Award for excellence in headache research from the American Headache Society and a two time winner of the Enrico Greppi award from the European Headache Federation.  Dr. Lipton is Director of the Montefiore Headache Center, an interdisciplinary subspecialty center focused on headache, patient care, research and education.

Dr. Lipton holds leadership positions in several professional societies. He is a Past-President of the American Headache Society (AHS).  He serves on the editorial boards of several journals, including Neurology. He has written 11 books. Dr. Lipton enjoys mentoring medical students, residents, PhD students and fellows.  Over the last decade he has mentored 7 CRTP students and 10 K-award recipients. He has received both the CRTP Mentor of the Year Award and the Einstein Faculty Mentoring Award.

Dr. Abdulrazaq Albilali

Neurologist and Headache Specialist, King Saud University Medical City, Saudi Arabia Head, Saudi Headache Chapter

Dr.Abdullah Mohammed Al Salti

Consultant Neurologist. Neuromuscular & EMG Specialist
Khoula Hospital
Muscat, Oman

Dr. Abdullah Mohammed Al-Salti graduated from Sultan Qaboos University in 2002. He obtained membership of royal college of physician MRCP UK in 2006 and completed his neurology residency program at McGill University from 2008-2013. He has obtained his FRCPC in neurology in 2013 and has completed Fellowship in Neuromuscular and EMG at McGill university in 2014. Dr. Al Salti is a member of the Canadian Society of Clinical Neurophysiology (CSCN in EMG) since 2014 and at present he is working as a senior consultant neurologist neuromuscular & EMG specialist. He is also a member of the scientific education committee internal medicine program Oman Medical Specialty Board (OMSB) and head of neurology department at Neuroscience Center at Khoula Hospital Muscat.

Dr. Bassem Yamout

Professor of Neurology, Director, Multiple Sclerosis Center Clinical Research

Beirut, Lebanon

Bassem I. Yamout is currently a Professor of Neurology at the American University of Beirut Medical Center. He graduated from medical school at AUB in 1984, received his training in neurology at the University of Cincinnati-Ohio followed by a fellowship at the Montreal Neurological Institute-McGill University, and joined the faculty of the American University of Beirut in 1988. His main focus of research is in the field of multiple sclerosis. He is currently President of the MENACTRIMS, Head of Clinical Research at the Multiple Sclerosis Center, fellow of the American Academy of Neurology, and member of multiple regional and international MS advisory boards.

Dr. Yamout is one of the leading experts on multiple sclerosis in the Middle East and Arab region with recent research on epidemiology of the disease in the region, quality of life of patients in the Middle East, novel therapies such as stem cell transplantation and venous stenosis, and the impact of wars on the course of multiple sclerosis. In addition he is currently the principal investigator on several ongoing international multiple sclerosis research trials. Dr. Yamout has authored many research and review papers and is currently Chief Editor of the MS newsletter “MS today”, and on the editorial board of “Multiple Sclerosis and Related Disorders”.

Dr. Jasem Al Hashel

Consultant Neurologist, Chairman of Neurology Department
Ibn Sina Hospital
Kuwait City, Kuwait

Jasem Al Hashel is an Adult Neurologist and Headache Specialist. He is a graduate of the College of Medicine, Kuwait University, Kuwait.

Dr. Al Hashel completed his neurology residency as well as his fellowship in headache and Botulinum toxin injection at McGill University, Canada.

Dr. Al Hashel is board certified from the Royal college of Physicians and Surgeon of Canada (FRCPC) and had also American fellowship in Headache Medicine (FAHS) and Canadian fellowship in Headache Medicine from McGill University.

He is the Chairman of Neurology Department and Associate Professor of Neurology at Kuwait University, Faculty of Medicine in Kuwait. He established the headache and the Botulinum toxin clinic in Ibn Sina and Mubarak Al-Kabeer Hospitals in Kuwait.

Dr. Al Hashel is also the Chair of the Faculty of Neurology in Kuwait and the President of Kuwait Neurological Society and the Vice President of Pan Arab Union of Neuroscience (PAUNS).

Dr. Al Hashel has more than 65 publications in the field of Neurology and author a chapter in chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) in International Neurology Book, Second Edition.

Dr. Al Hashel was awarded as Best Researcher in Kuwait University in 2015. He was also awarded by H.H the Amer of Kuwait Sheikh Sabah for Scientific Achievements in Medical Sciences and Allied Health Sciences in 2019.

Dr. Ziad Elchami

International Medical Center Saudi Arabia

Ziad Elchami, Director of Pain & Headache Management Center at the International Medical Center (IMC), Jeddah, KSA, is a Pain & Headache Management Consultant, who specializes in chronic pain and neurology. His clinical interests include: clinical neurophysiology, neuromuscular disorders, and pain. He completed his medical degree at the University of Damascus. He then joined Kansas University Neurology Residency Program where he completed both his residency and fellowship programs in Clinical Neurophysiology and Neuromuscular Disorders. During this period, he served as Chief Residents and Chief Fellow, as well. He has a Pain & Headache Fellowship from Cleveland Clinic Foundation where he worked from 2003-2005. He deals with all cases related to chronic pain, chronic spine pain, and chronic migraine. He achieved many awards and is well-published in both major national and international journals. He also has presented more than 70 abstracts in various conferences and seminars world-wide.