Is V. S. Ramachandran ACTUALLY a neurologist?

[Vivara]

---

Members don't see this ad.

I was just reading up on the brilliant neuroscientist Vilayanur Subramian Ramachandran. If you haven't heard of him, you should look at some of this presentations at TED.

Everywhere I've read it says that he completed his MD, and then a PhD in neuroscience and experimental psychology. He was then a postdoctoral fellow at the Physiology Department at Oxford University. On no website does it mention a residency or an actual medical university fellowship.

But everywhere, like his Wikipedia article and in numerous other articles he is described as a Neurologist. This must be incorrect, because in the New York Times, they simply say he is a Neuroscientist. (And it wouldn't make sense anyway since there is no mention of his residency.)

I'm probably going to change the Wikipedia article.

Ed.

 

[Mattchiavelli]

his faculty page from UCSD-
http://neurograd.ucsd.edu/faculty/detail.php?id=142

His lab's website-
http://cbc.ucsd.edu/cbc.html

He's definitely a neuroscientist that has produced some work directly applicable to the treatment of neurological illness [I'm thinking of the mirror box/phantom limb pain in specific] but I think you're right in that he is not a residency-trained neurologist. There are a lot of lay people [and even some physicians] that have trouble keeping neuroscientist and neurologist straight and I think that's what is going on.

 

[pinkes]

From Wikipedia...( medical school, Phd, research fellowship)

he attended schools in Madras, Bangkok and England,[9] and followed many scientific paths, including conchology.[6] After receiving medical training from Stanley Medical College in Madras in 1974, he moved to Trinity College, Cambridge, where he obtained his Ph.D. in 1978, with a dissertation on behavioral and physiological studies of binocular vision.[10] He was then a postdoctoral fellow at the Physiology Department at Oxford University. His advisors were Oliver Braddick, Fergus Campbell, Horace Barlow, Colin Blakemore and (at Oxford) David Whitteridge. While still in England, he collaborated with Richard Gregory. He then spent two years at Caltech, as a research fellow working with Jack Pettigrew. He was appointed Assistant Professor of Psychology at the University of California, San Diego in 1983, and has been a full professor there since 1998.
[edit]

 

[LAhottie]

He is not a registered Medical Doctor in California.

 

[Lokhtar]

Yea I think he did medical school but did not do residency and went the PhD->research route.

 

[PETRAN]

In all his books though he repeatedly refers to himself as a clinical neurologist. In the last one-"the tell-tale brain"-he describes performing a clinical neurological examination in a left-hemisphere stroke (broca's aphasic) patient (he also writes that the specific stroke patient was the father of his friend and that his friend wanted him to examine and treat his father's stroke despite of Ramachandran "doing mostly research these days". ). In the book he always writes about his patients refering to him as their (medical) doctor and explicitly states that he "has seen various exotic neurological cases in his long career as a behavioral neurologist". So, i think that-yes-he is a clinical neurologist but probably trained and practiced in India before ending in the states doing (mostly)basic experimental research. Unless he is lying lol

 

[pinkes]

He has done MBBS------PhD--------MD in physiology( where u can do certain studies on patienst)

 

[LAhottie]

In all his books though he repeatedly refers to himself as a clinical neurologist. In the last one-"the tell-tale brain"-he describes performing a clinical neurological examination in a left-hemisphere stroke (broca's aphasic) patient (he also writes that the specific stroke patient was the father of his friend and that his friend wanted him to examine and treat his father's stroke despite of Ramachandran "doing mostly research these days". ). In the book he always writes about his patients refering to him as their (medical) doctor and explicitly states that he "has seen various exotic neurological cases in his long career as a behavioral neurologist". So, i think that-yes-he is a clinical neurologist but probably trained and practiced in India before ending in the states doing (mostly)basic experimental research. Unless he is lying lol

I doubt the medical board will look into this, but it is certainly not a licensed CA medical doctor.

 

[sanalmg]

He did his medical graduation and residency from a reputed medical school in India. However, he choose the research path and therefore I guess, he didn't bother to get medical licensing in California. Why should one waste 3-4 years after doing residency in another country, and after doing a PhD and multiple postdoctoral fellowships under the supervision of renowned people (especially when one is more inclined towards research!).