Dr. Amza Ali
Dr Amza Ali trained in Medicine at the University of the West Indies, Mona, with post-graduate training in Internal Medicine at UWI (DM). After being awarded a British Commonwealth Scholarship, he then trained in Neurology at the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery, Queen Square, London, England with a research Fellow’s position in the Retrovirus Research Group at the Clinical Research Centre, Harrow, England. He became a member (MRCP, 1990) and Fellow (FRCP, 2003) of the Royal College of Physicians, London and is specialist certified in Neurology by the Federation of Royal Colleges of Physicians of the United Kingdom and the Association of British Neurologists. In 2001 he completed a clinical fellowship in Epilepsy in New York at the Comprehensive Epilepsy Center, Neurological Institute, Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center at Columbia University and is board certified in Advanced Central Clinical Neurophysiology by the American Board of Clinical Neurophysiology (ABCN). He was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Neurology (AAN) in 2013 and a Fellow of the American Epilepsy Society (AES) in 2018.
In 2001, he launched the Jamaican League Against Epilepsy (JLAE) and later transformed the JLAE into the larger regional organization, the Epilepsy Society of the Caribbean (ESC), a powerful advocacy platform for epilepsy. He has received several major awards for his work, including the Donald M. Palatucci Award for Neurology in 2009 from the American Academy of Neurology. In 2011 he was recognised by Yale University with the Swebilius Lectureship and Award for his “lasting achievements in the field of epilepsy”. His work has been featured in Neurology Today, the official organ of the American Academy of Neurology (AAN). In 2011 and again in 2012 he was chosen as AAN Ambassador to the Caribbean region. In 2015 he was honoured by the Association of Consultant Physicians of Jamaica (ACPJ) for his local, regional and international work in Neurology and Epilepsy. In 2017 he was selected, as one of 3 physicians globally, for the International Award for Excellence in Patient Care from the Royal College of Physicians of London, UK. In June 2019 he was awarded the title of lifetime Ambassador for Epilepsy by the International Bureau for Epilepsy (IBE) and the International League Against Epilepsy (ILAE).
In 2015 Dr Ali completed an MBA at the Rotman School of Management of the University of Toronto and then, in 2017, an MSc in Research Methodology at the Henley Business School, University of Reading, UK. This has facilitated his interest in research at the intersection of Neurology and Business. His commitment to the welfare of patients with intractable neurological and co-morbid mental health conditions has led to recent publications on the benefits of natural products, including cannabinoids and the utility of mushroom-derived psilocybin as a treatment, particularly in the palliative care setting.
He is an active researcher in the neurosciences with nearly 50 peer-reviewed publications in leading journals in the field of Neurology as well as dozens of abstracts and several non-peer-reviewed articles in highly read North American non-scientific publications. He serves on major international committees including of the WHO, focused on improving global neurological care, with first authorship of a chapter on Stigma in Epilepsy in the World Health Organization’s (WHO) recent Global Report on Epilepsy, entitled Epilepsy: a Public Health Imperative.
