Manuel Montero-Odasso, MD; PhD

Dr. Manuel Montero-Odasso is a geriatrician at Parkwood Institute and Professor and Faculty Scholar in the Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry at Western University. He is also the Director of the Gait & Brain Lab at Parkwood Institute, a clinician-scientist at the Lawson Health Research Institute and serves as team leader at the Canadian Consortium on Neurodegeneration in Aging and the Ontario Neurodegenerative Research Initiative.

Dr. Montero-Odasso leads the Gait and Brain Health Program goal of understanding mechanisms and treatments of mobility and cognitive decline in aging by focusing on the interaction between gait performance and cognition and how this increases the risk of falls. Through this work Dr. Montero-Odasso has established the use of “motor biomarkers”, like slowing of gait speed and dual-task effects on gait to predict frailty, falls, and dementia. He is also a co-PI of the Canadian Therapeutic Platform for Multidomain Interventions to Prevent Dementia, which focuses on multi-domain lifestyle interventions that include physical exercises, cognitive training, diet, self-management of cardiovascular factors and sleep, in order to reduce the risk or delay the onset of dementia in older adults.  

Dr. Montero-Odasso has received more than $6 million of competitive peer-reviewed research funding, has published over 150 scientific articles, 14 books and book chapters, and has received several accolades, including the American Geriatrics Society New Investigator Award, the Schulich Clinician Scientist Award, the Premier of Ontario Excellence Research Award, and the CIHR New Investigator Award. In 2019, he was inducted as one of the Top 10 Hispanic Canadian for his contribution in Medicine and Science. He has been invited to give more than 100 international presentations as a guest speaker. He serves as associate editor for the Journal of Gerontology Medical Sciences, Geriatrics, and Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease, among others. He also serves as executive member and Vice-President of the Canadian Geriatrics Society.