Amytis Towfighi, MD

The Guest Editor of this issue of Seminars in Neurology is Dr. Amytis Towfighi.

Dr. Towfighi is Associate Professor of Neurology at the University of Southern California School of Medicine in Los Angeles. She received her BS from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, and her MD from the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in Baltimore, Maryland. She underwent her medical internship and neurology residency training at Harvard University, including the Brigham and Women's and Massachusetts General Hospitals. In addition, she completed a vascular neurology fellowship at UCLA. She is regarded as one of the emerging leaders in stroke, having received such awards as the Robert G. Siekert New Investigator Award in Stroke from the American Heart Association (AHA), as well as the Michael S. Pessin Stroke Leadership Prize from the American Academy of Neurology. She is currently Chair of the Department of Neurology at Rancho Los Amigos National Rehabilitation Center in Downey, California, as well as Chief of the Stroke System of Care.

Motivated by her upbringing in Kenya, Dr. Towfighi has focused on improving both access to care and quality of care for marginalized populations. Over the past 10 years, her research, clinical care, and administrative duties have aligned to reduce disparities. Specifically, her analyses of nationwide datasets have illustrated race/ethnic, socioeconomic, and sex disparities in stroke care and outcomes. She is performing randomized controlled trials of complex interventions aimed at improving risk factor control after stroke in underserved settings. Through her administrative roles in the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services System, she has built programs and implemented novel interventions, while practicing as a vascular neurologist in the same system. She received the Clinical Systems Development Award from the California Association of Public Hospitals and Health Systems and California Health Care Safety Net Institute.

Despite her extensive administrative and clinical responsibilities, she has published over 60 manuscripts, and received funding from the AHA, the National Institute of Minority Health, and the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS). She has served on five AHA Scientific Statement and Guideline writing groups; was an Executive Steering Committee Member for the AHA Special Report Women's Triennial Health Tracking Study in Cardiovascular Disease & Stroke (2012); co-chaired the NINDS Health Services Implementation, Stroke Progress Review Group (2011); and chaired the AHA Scientific Statement Writing Group for Post-Stroke Depression. Currently, she is on the writing committee for the annual AHA Heart Disease and Stroke Statistics Updates; is the Section Editor for “Stroke Literature Synopses: Clinical Science” for the journal Stroke; serves on the Advisory Committee to the California Department of Public Health California Stroke Registry/California Coverdell Program; is a member of the Primary and Secondary Prevention Working Group for NIH StrokeNet, and serves on the International Stroke Conference Program Committee. She has received several foundation grants for implementing interventions to improve health care delivery in safety-net settings and is the principal investigator of two secondary stroke prevention randomized controlled trials: Healthy Eating and Lifestyle after Stroke (HEALS), and Secondary Stroke Prevention by Uniting Community and Chronic Care Model Teams Early to End Disparities (SUCCEED).

We greatly appreciate the efforts of Dr. Towfighi, as well as all of the contributing authors, for their great work in this issue of Seminars, which comprehensively covers the topic of Stroke Prevention. The issue is a tour de force, and provides a wonderful update to this ever-changing field. It encompasses practical pearls for the practitioner, as well as active research in stroke prevention that will push the boundaries of our knowledge. We hope you enjoy this marvelous issue!