Eugenia Trushina, PhD: Communication and Learning Through Collaboration

“I believe this is a big problem—narrow specialization, not listening carefully, not putting 2-and-2 together.”

With the ongoing shortage of physicians in the United States impacting the field of medicine more and more, there has been a cause for concern with an increasing number of aging, comorbid patients. The neurology field has felt this pressure, perhaps even more so.

For Eugenia Trushina, PhD, this has led to an increased need to communicate and pay attention to as much as possible across the different specializations in neurology. The associate professor of neurology at Mayo Clinic Rochester explained that her life’s work in mitochondria-targeted therapies ultimately came about by her desire to learn from others, and being open to attending presentations in different specializations.

She expressed hope that those coming into the field now will take care in choosing which conferences and meetings to attend to best optimize their ability to learn, as well as their time—which has become so precious for clinicians and researchers alike.

At the Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation’s 19th Annual Conference in Jersey City, New Jersey, NeurologyLive sat with Trushina to discuss this importance of communication and understanding between specialties.