This week’s episode of “WisBusiness: the Podcast” is with Dr. Shekar Kurpad, founding director of the Wisconsin Institute of NeuroScience.
The institute, formally launched earlier this month, is a partnership between Froedtert & the Medical College of Wisconsin health network, MCW, Children’s Wisconsin and the Clement J. Zablocki Veterans’ Administration Medical Center.
MCW, Froedtert and Children’s Wisconsin had previously established the Neuroscience Institute in early 2022, which has now been rebranded under the new name.
“It’s a true equal partnership of all these entities to launch the neurosciences into the next level,” he said. “What does that mean? It means more cutting edge research in the neurosciences … an area of medicine where very little is known and there’s a lot to be discovered.”
This work could benefit a wide array of patients, including those with memory and movement disorders, epilepsy, brain tumors, spine problems and more.
Along with efforts to improve clinical care to a national level of recognition, the institute will offer “cutting-edge” clinical trials for new treatments and opportunities for education.
“It’s really important in an evolving discipline like the neurosciences and medicine overall, to train the next generation,” he said. “And trainees, the best and brightest trainees, come to places that have the best research, the best clinical care, so we hope to be a magnet for those individuals.”
Kurpad also discusses ongoing programs connected to WINS, including an effort to improve treatments for treating trauma in first-responders, as well as some broader trends in neuroscience research.
