Howard Fillit, MD: Emphasizing Care in Alzheimer Disease

“I think that we’re still here to help manage patients.”

Howard Fillit, MD, the founding executive director and chief scientific officer of the Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation, likes to quote Hippocrates.

“The role of the doctor is sometimes to treat, often to relieve pain, and always to comfort,” Fillit quoted. As a geriatrician by trade, Fillit has cared for patients with Alzheimer disease for almost 4 decades, and the need to care for patients and their families above all else remains important to him.

He noted that for the neurology community, despite a great need for new therapies for the condition, there is still a need to increase the patient’s quality of life. This, he noted, can be done by keeping patients informed about novel therapies, appropriately utilizing the available treatments, and ultimately, by simply caring for them.

At the ADDF 19th Annual Conference in Jersey City, New Jersey, NeurologyLive sat with Fillit to discuss the need for the neurology community as a whole to place an emphasis on patient care.