Manraj Heran, MD ‘96

Dr. Manraj (Raju) Heran is an Associate Professor in the Department of Radiology at the University of British Columbia (UBC) Faculty of Medicine.  Formerly the Head of the Division of Neuroradiology at Vancouver General Hospital (VGH), he is the Fellowship Director for the Diagnostic Neuroradiology Fellowship Program at VGH, and is a staff pediatric interventional radiologist at BC Children’s Hospital. With cross appointments in Neurology, Neurosurgery and Pediatrics, Dr. Heran is heavily involved in medical education and clinical research. His specific areas of interest include the diagnosis and management of vascular malformations, interventional neuroradiology (including acute stroke and other ischemic cerebrovascular disease) and orbital radiology.

Despite his busy full-time clinical practice, Dr. Heran has participated in and led a number of funded and non-funded research projects throughout his career. He has been a co-investigator in a number of trials evaluating interventions for acute ischemic stroke, as well as a long-term study evaluating the neuropsychological and neuropathological effects of acute versus chronic ethanol intake on the outcomes from acute head injury, which has generated several publications in peer-reviewed journals, as well as numerous presentations at international meetings by members of the study group.

Dr. Heran has received several teaching awards, and has engaged medical students in a variety of summer research projects including a detailed review of anatomic variants of the craniocervical vessels demonstrated by CT angiography of close to 1,000 cases, a review of the endovascular management of acute stroke at VGH, setting up a database for the VGH vertebroplasty program, and an investigation of the effect of varying arterial input functions on the analysis of cerebral CT perfusion studies. Dr. Heran recently won the prestigious “Young Investigator’s Award” from the Canadian Association of Radiology, and also has been elected to the Board of Directors for the Society of Pediatric Interventional Radiology.

Dr. Stephen Read is a Clinical Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioural Sciences in the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles and the Attending Staff Psychiatrist for the Outpatient Geriatric Psychiatry Program at Greater Los Angeles Veterans Health Care System. A clinical and research psychiatrist with board certification in the subspecialties of forensic and geriatric psychiatry, Dr. Read has been qualified as an expert witness in United States federal and multiple courts.

Primarily a clinical geriatric psychiatrist, Dr. Read pioneered new approaches to clinical care in a diversity of settings. For outpatient care, he developed Psychiatric Home Physician Care Management for selected complex cases in private practice. One of the first geriatric psychiatrists to work extensively in long-term care, he received a commendation for his role in developing the Nursing Home Care Unit program at the West Los Angeles Veterans Affairs Medical Center. Dr. Read then became the founding Medical Director of the John Douglas French Center for Alzheimer’s Disease, where he developed skilled nursing programs for patients with differing care needs. Under Dr. Read’s direction, these programs were integrated with assisted living, community care, day care and acute psychiatric care programs.

Although his main research focus has been Alzheimer’s disease, Dr. Read has also investigated other causes of cognitive impairment (frontal lobe and sub-cortical dementias, stroke, prion disease, hydrocephalus), depression and psychiatric aspects of other disorders such as Parkinson’s disease, cortico-basilar degeneration and TTP (thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura). His efforts have contributed to fostering a multi-dimensional understanding of the function and expression of Alzheimer’s disease, as well as the differential effects of Alzheimer’s disease and other disease processes on patients and families.

An experienced teacher and public speaker, Dr. Read is also a member of several advisory boards including the Scientific Advisory Board of the French Foundation for Alzheimer Disease and the Alzheimer’s Disease Research programs at the University of Southern California, University of California Irvine. He reviews articles for several medical journals and has published more than 40 articles and chapters in peer-reviewed journals and other media. As part of his forensic work, Dr. Read has written on the question of the capacity to marry and has extensive experience in the analysis of undue influence and abuse.

Dr. Bruce Miller is a Professor of Neurology at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) and holds the A.W. and Mary Margaret Clausen Distinguished Chair. He directs the busy UCSF dementia centre where patients in the San Francisco Bay Area receive comprehensive clinical evaluations. His goal is the delivery of model care to all of the patients who enter the clinical and research programs at UCSF.

Dr. Miller is a behavioural neurologist focused in dementia with special interests in brain and behaviour relationships as well as the genetic and molecular underpinnings of disease. His work in frontotemporal dementia (FTD) emphasizes both the behavioural and emotional deficits that characterize these patients, while simultaneously noting the visual creativity that can emerge in the setting of FTD. He is the principal investigator of the NIH-sponsored Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center and an NIH-funded program project on FTD called “Frontotemporal Dementia: Genes, Imaging and Emotions.” He oversees a healthy aging program supported through the Hellman Center, which includes an artist-in-residence program. In addition, he helps lead two philanthropy-funded research consortia, the Tau Consortium and Consortium for Frontotemporal Research, focused on developing treatments for tau and progranulin disorders respectively. Also, he has worked with the National Football League to help with the education and assessment of players related to brain health. Dr. Miller teaches extensively and runs the Behavioral Neurology Fellowship at UCSF.

Dr. Miller has received many awards including the Potamkin Award from the American Academy of Neurology, the Raymond Adams Lecture at the American Neurological Association, the Elliot Royer Award from the San Francisco neurological community, the UCSF Annual Faculty Research Lectureship in Clinical Science, the UCSF Academic Senate Distinction in Mentoring Award, and the Gene D. Cohen Research Award in Creativity and Aging from the National Center for Creative Aging. He has authored “The Human Frontal Lobes,” “The Behavioral Neurology of Dementia” and extensive publications regarding dementia. He has been featured in Fortune Magazine, The Charlie Rose Show, PBS NewsHour, The New York Times, and other media. For nearly three decades, Dr. Miller has been the scientific director for the philanthropic organization The John Douglas French Alzheimer’s Foundation.