Omar Khan, M.D., Wayne State University School of Medicine professor of Neurology, has been appointed chair of the Department of Neurology.
Valerie M. Parisi, M.D., M.P.H., M.B.A., announced the appointment April 17. Dr. Khan's appointment is effective April 22.
"His devotion to education and the clinical treatment of patients, combined with his passion for collaborative research, make Dr. Khan the ideal person to lead the department into its next chapter," Dean Parisi said. "A widely published and internationally respected neurologist and clinical researcher, Dr. Khan is the ideal leader to maintain the high quality research and sought-after patient care for which the department has become known."
Dr. Khan, a resident of West Bloomfield, Mich., has served as interim chair of the department for the last year while the school conducted an extensive national search and interviewed candidates.
"I am honored and humbled by the opportunity to lead a prestigious department nationally known for its excellence in teaching, clinical care and research," said Dr. Khan, the director of the Wayne State University Multiple Sclerosis Center and the Sastry Foundation Advanced Imaging Laboratory. "I am looking forward to working with my colleagues and leading the department."
Dr. Khan, who joined the Department of Neurology in 1998, also serves as neurologist-in-chief for the Detroit Medical Center and associate chief medical officer for the Wayne State University Physician Group.
He received his medical degree in 1987 from the Allama Iqbal Medical College, University of the Punjab in Lahore, Pakistan. Following initial residency training in Pakistan, he performed an internship in Internal Medicine at the Jewish Hospital of Cincinnati from 1990 to 1991. He then completed a Neurology residency at the Medical College of Virginia and dual fellowships in Neuroimmunology and Neuroimaging at the University of Maryland and the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Baltimore, Md. He served on the University of Maryland Department of Neurology faculty from 1996 to 1998, before joining Wayne State University in 1998.
Since joining WSU, Dr. Khan has secured more than $10 million in research funding. He has served as principal investigator in more than 60 studies and is the principal investigator in more than 15 clinical trials, investigator-initiated and National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke-funded studies. He directs the Wayne State University Multiple Sclerosis Center, one of the top five MS centers in the country, with a patient population exceeding 4,500. He is internationally recognized in the field of therapeutic development, genotype-phenotype MR mapping in multiple sclerosis. Dr. Khan has established the largest African-American Multiple Sclerosis Clinic in the United States and is the founding member of the African-American Initiative in Multiple Sclerosis, a Detroit community-based endeavor. His MRI Analysis Laboratory, supported by a generous gift from the Sastry Foundation, focuses on developing biomarkers and investigations into mechanisms of tissue injury and repair in neurodegenerative disorders, including Parkinson's disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, Alzheimer's disease and multiple sclerosis.
"We will be undertaking several initiatives exploring new partnerships as well strengthening existing ones," Dr. Khan said of his immediate plans. "On the clinical side, our hospital partners provide several opportunities to collaborate and create services that benefit teaching, clinical care and even research. Research is critical to the success of teaching and clinical missions of the department, the school and the university. While federal funding of research remains challenging, amidst these challenges also lay opportunities. Collaborative and translational studies in neurosciences will continue to be favorably viewed as evident from President Obama's recent neurosciences-related initiative. In this context, we will soon start active discussions to undertake such collaborative projects."
He said he also looks forward to recruiting "top-notch faculty with a view to carry our mission in the years to come." He also wants to expand residency and fellowship programs. "Last, but certainly not least, will be our renewed effort on philanthropy, which will be critical to the research undertakings in the department, both in clinical and basic sciences," he said.
Dr. Khan serves on the Translational Research Committee of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society and is a member of the society's National Medical Advisory Board. He is one of the few neurologists in the United States serving on the prestigious European Charcot Foundation for Multiple Sclerosis Research. He also has served on study sections of the National Institutes of Health, the Department of Defense, the Canadian Institute of Health Research and the Multiple Sclerosis Society of Canada. He has served on the U.S. Food and Drug Administration CNS & PNS Advisory Committee. He is a member of the American Academy of Neurology, International Society of Magnetic Resonance in Medicine, the International Genetic Consortium in Multiple Sclerosis, and is a fellow of the American Neurological Association.