Xavier Montalban

Dr. Xavier Montalban is Professor of Medicine and the Department Division Director, Division of Neurology, at the University of Toronto and Director of the MS Centre at St Michael’s Hospital. He is also the chair of the Department of Neurology-Neuroimmunology and Director of the Multiple Sclerosis Centre of Catalonia at the Vall d’Hebron University Hospital in Barcelona, where he is former director of the Department of Neuroscience, as well as the chief of the Neuroimmunology Research Group at the Vall d’Hebron Research Institute. He is Professor of Neurology at Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Dr Montalban is the President of the Cemcat Foundation. He is the chairman of the International Medical and Scientific Board of the MSIF and former President of the European Committee for Treatment and Research in Multiple Sclerosis (ECTRIMS). Dr Montalban is a member of the International Panel on Multiple Sclerosis Diagnostic Criteria and Clinical Trials and Editor for Clinical cases of the Multiple Sclerosis Journal. He is a member of the Board of the European Charcot Foundation.

Dr. Montalban received his medical license, trained as a Neurology specialist and completed his PhD in Neuroimmunology at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. He went on to undertake a postdoctoral fellowship at the Lupus Research Institute, Guy’s & St. Thomas’ Hospital with additional clinical training at the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery, Queen Square in London, United Kingdom. For the past twenty-five years, Prof. Montalban has been in the inception phases and on steering committees of many clinical trials related to multiple sclerosis. He has authored over 500 original and revision publications in international peer-reviewed journals plus several book chapters. Recently, he co-directed the development of the first ECTRIMS-EAN Multiple Sclerosis Treatment Guidelines. His research interests include clinical trials, clinical aspects of MS, MR and biological prognostic factors of disease evolution and treatment response, immunological mechanisms of the disease and other aspects of clinical management of MS. Of note in medical education is the UAB postgraduate online Master’s Degree in Neuroimmunology (http://bit.ly/1TnD6MG) of which he is the director and professor.

In 2012 Dr. Montalban saw the culmination of over twenty years of constant strive to make MS management truly a continuous care process through the MS Centre of Catalonia (https://www.cem-cat.org/en) : a purpose built, 2000 square metre building for diagnosis, treatment, rehabilitation, research and teaching. More than 70 health care, research and other professionals power the center; together they cater for the needs of over 5,000 persons with MS and their families. Dr. Montalban will also lead a city-wide Multiple Sclerosis Program based at St. Michael’s Hospital.