WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – Allison Brashear, M.D., a neurologist at Indiana University School of Medicine, will become chairwoman of the Department of Neurology at Wake Forest University School on Medicine on Sept. 15.
The announcement came from William Applegate M.D., M.P.H., vice president of Wake Forest University Health Sciences and dean of the School of Medicine.
Brashear currently is a professor of neurology and vice-chairman for clinical practice and program development at Indiana.
“There were many outstanding candidates,” Applegate said in describing the national search for a chairman to succeed B. Todd Troost, M.D., who retired last year. “She will make an outstanding addition to our faculty.”
Both Brashear and Troost are experts in the use of Botox -- botulinum toxin -- for neurological problems, an evolving field within neurology. Troost used Botox for preventing debilitating headaches and attracted national attention when he reported his findings to the American Headache Society.
Brashear was the first to show that Botox relieved spasticity in wrists and fingers that often plague stroke patients, thereby improving their quality of life. She published her findings in the New England Journal of Medicine at almost the same time as Troost’s report.
She also has been the principal investigator in multi-center trials using Botox in the treatment of cervical dystonia, in which neck muscles contract involuntarily, causing abnormal movements and posture of the head and neck. She has published numerous peer-reviewed journal articles on the use of Botox for the treatment of both disorders.
She is the chairwoman of the Spasticity/Dystonia Advisory Board of the Movement Disorder Society within the American Academy of Neurology and directs courses at national workshops designed to teach the technique of Botox treatment. Brashear also recently described a unique genetic form of dystonia-Parkinsonism called Rapid-Onset Dystonia-Parkinsonism (RDP).
Brashear is the president of the Indiana Neurological Society, a statewide organization of neurologists. She graduated from Indiana University School of Medicine in 1987 and completed her residency in neurology there in 1991.
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Media Contacts: Robert Conn, rconn@wfubmc.edu, Karen Richardson, krchrdsn@wfubmc.edu, or Mark Wright, mwright@wfubmc.edu, at (336) 716-4587.
About Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center: Wake Forest Baptist is an academic health system comprised of North Carolina Baptist Hospital and Wake Forest University Health Sciences, which operates the university’s School of Medicine. The system comprises 1,187 acute care, psychiatric, rehabilitation and long-term care beds and is consistently ranked as one of “America’s Best Hospitals” by U.S. News & World Report.