Dan Hoch

I am a neurologist in the Department of Neurology at the Massachusetts General Hospital and assistant professor at Harvard Medical School. I obtained a bachelor of arts from Whitman College majoring in philosophy and psychology. I received a master of science in experimental psychology from Purdue University and a doctorate in neurobiology from the University of North Carolina. After considering a research career in cognitive computer science, I chose instead to attend medical school at the University of North Carolina and completed a residency in neurology at UCLA.

My clinical interest is in the care of patients with epilepsy and I work with colleagues at the Epilepsy Service at the MGH. We also maintain a unit specific web page for our service at seizure.org.

I was an early user of computers and communication technologies to facilitate the care of patients. I am a founding member of the Braintalk Communities, a collection of over 200 separate online support groups for individuals with neurological disease, and a member of the Cooks Branch Initiative, a group brought together by a wonderful friend and mentor, the late Dr. Tom Ferguson, to promote engaged, empowered and energized "e-Patients". You can read more about this movement at our blog e-pateints.net. I am also a founding member of the Society for Participatory Medicine

I am currently trying to get back to my roots in neuroscience and hope to spend an increasing portion of my time thinking about neuronal circuits and epileptogenesis. Perhaps I'll even write a book on consciousness, religion or philosophy as is a common practice of aging neuroscientists.