Cohort 
2016

Elisa França Resende, MD, PhD

Neurologist

To reduce the scale and impact of dementia we should prevent the avoidable dementia cases like the ones associated with low education.

Current Work

Neurologist at the Hospital das Clínicas, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais/EBSERH; Assistant Professor, Faculdade de Ciências Médicas de Minas Gerais; Deputy-Coordinator, Department of Cognitive Neurology and Aging at the Brazilian Academy of Neurology

Personal Hero

My mother

Words of Strength

Bring enthusiasm to what seems lost

Vision

To reduce the scale and impact of dementia we should prevent the avoidable dementia cases like the ones associated with low education.

Strategy

In her research, Elisa combines neuroscience, neuroimaging and education to understand the positive impact of improving the educational attainment of illiterate adults later in life. Her goal is to provide scientific evidence that late-life education can improve memory and brain connectivity, acting like a buffer to delay the onset of dementia symptoms.

Impact

Elisa is a neurologist from Brazil working in the public health system providing neurologic care for vulnerable populations with dementia. The Fellowship provided her with knowledge to improve the quality of care she gives and to spread knowledge through training of health professionals locally.

Motivation

In Latin America, as life expectancy rises sharply, the incidence of dementia is expected to increase four fold in the nexts years.

Education & Experience

Elisa Resende received her medical school training from the Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Brazil. She received her PhD in Neuroscience at the same University. Elisa did her residency in Neurology at the Hospital das Clínicas-UFMG/EBSERH. After one year of fellowship in Behavioral Neurology and Movement Disorders, she joined the hospital staff as assistant physician. In 2022, she joined the Department of Cognitive Neurology and Aging at the Brazilian Academy of Neurology as Deputy-Coordinator.