Professor and Chief Neurosciences Critical Care
Director Precision Medicine Center of Excellence for Neurocritical Care
Departments of Anesthesiology and Critical Care Medicine, Neurology, and Neurosurgery
Past President Neurocritical Care Society
Founding and Past Chair Neurocritical Care Research Network
Dr. Jose I. Suarez graduated from Javeriana University School of Medicine in Bogota, Colombia. He subsequently trained in Internal Medicine in Bogota and at Beth Israel Hospital in New York City. Then he completed his Neurology residency at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, OH and pursued a fellowship in Neurocritical Care and Stroke at the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, MD (USA).
After completion of his training Dr. Suarez joined the faculty at the Departments of Neurology and Neurosurgery at Case Western Reserve University where he became the Maxine Stone and John A Flower Chair of acute neurology. He then became the Head of Vascular Neurology and Neurocritical and a tenured Professor of Neurology and Neurosurgery at the Baylor College of Medicine and the CHI Baylor St Luke’s Medical Center in Houston, TX (USA) from 02/2007 – 07/2017.
He is currently the Professor of Anesthesiology and Critical Care Medicine, Neurology, and Neurosurgery and Director of the Neurocritical Care Division at the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, MD.
Dr. Suarez has authored or co-authored over 150 publications in the areas of stroke and critical care neurology and neurosurgery in reputable journals including the New England Journal of Medicine, JAMA, Stroke, Critical Care Medicine, and Neurology. He is a member of the Editorial Board of Stroke and Neurocritical Care and is the editor of several books including the Critical Care Neurology and Neurosurgery textbook. He is also a member of the Board of Directors and Secretary of the Neurocritical Care Society. In addition he has been featured in Best Doctors in America for the past 10 years.
Dr. Suarez areas of research interest include subarachnoid hemorrhage, acute ischemic stroke, cerebral edema, and outcomes in neurocritical care. He has been the principal investigators or co-investigator in important clinical trials investigating neuprotection, blood pressure management, and stem cell infusions in patients with subarachnoid hemorrhage, intracranial hemorrhage, and subarachnoid hemorrhage, and cerebral physiology at high altitude and human space travel ground analogs.
Dr. Suarez was the PI for the NINDS-funded ALISAH Multicenter Pilot Study and is the PI for the ALISAH II International Multicenter Phase II clinical trial. Dr. Suarez also has been a member of DSMB for several Phase III clinical trials including the NINDS-funded TBI in Latin America Lifespan Analysis and a member of the Executive Committee for the NINDS-funded ATACH II Trial. Dr. Suarez is the principal investigator for the HANAK Project, which is looking to establish a high-altitude research center in Quito, Ecuador.
Dr. Suarez is a co-investigator for the SPACE-COT and SPACE-CENT Studies both funded by NSBRI/NASA and investigating the intracranial effects of space travel on intracranial physiology in earth analogs. He receives research funding from the National Institutes of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS/NIH) and NSBRI/NASA in the USA, and Yachay from the Government of Ecuador.
Dr. Suarez has served at several research study sections including NSD-K (NINDS/NIH), BRAIN (AHA/ASA), Hong Kong Research Council. Dr. Suarez was the founder of the Neurocritical Care Research Network (NCRN), which is composed of 260 neurocritical care units and investigators from 47 centers and have recently completed the PRINCE Study, the first observational study investigating the practice of neurocritical care.