Seeking a deeper understanding of the most complex part of the human body
Farah Fourcand M.D. ’15 has always been fascinated with the brain. “It directs every other organ in the body. For me, understanding the brain is like space or sea exploration,” she says.
Dr. Fourcand’s spirit of exploration recently led her to accept the position of stroke director at the Cleveland Clinic in Vero Beach, Florida. She’s charged with building a comprehensive center that focuses on all aspects of stroke prevention, treatment and the management of complex cerebrovascular disorders.
The Haitian-American brings to the position a unique set of skills and experiences acquired in the last decade by following her curiosity. As an undergraduate student, the Miami native was a true Renaissance woman majoring in biology, anthropology, philosophy and art history.
After graduating from the Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine in 2015, she pursued a rare hybrid residency at MedStar Georgetown University Hospital that allowed her to conduct research at the NIH’s National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke. “It was research Disneyland,“ she says.
In 2020, amid the COVID-19 global pandemic, Fourcand saw an opportunity to be of service outside of the hospital walls. She published a 75-page book titled Pandemic Manifesto: COVID-19 Basic Training From The Frontlines that helped educated readers develop a framework to understand the barrage of information they were being inundated with at the time.
The physician-scientist is also working on a start-up, Brain Theory, that will offer supplements that contribute to brain health as well as provide education. In 2022, Fourcand received a patent for the product. “You see a lot of supplements, but not something that a neuroscientist actually developed. This is based on significant research,” Fourcand says.
Always in search of more ways to help people, Fourcand also recently added a Havanese puppy named Sheba to her family; she is training her to be a therapy dog.