Richard J. Barohn, M.D.

Professor & Chairman

Dr. Richard Barohn is a graduate of the six-year BA/MD program at the University of Missouri - Kansas City School of Medicine. He completed his BA degree in1975 and was awarded his MD degree in 1980. He completed a medicine internship at Wilford Hall USAF Medical Center at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas prior to serving as General Medical Officer for the USAF. He then completed a neurology residency at Wilford Hall USAF Medical Center and then completed a neuromuscular fellowship with Dr. Jerry Mendel at Ohio State University. He served on the faculty at the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio, Texas from 1989 to 1993.

Dr. Barohn then joined the faculty at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas in 1993. There he was the Co-Director of the Muscular Dystrophy Association, myasthenia gravis, and the amyotrophic lateral sclerosis clinics and peripheral neuropathy clinics. In 1998, he became the Lois C.A. and Darwin E. Smith Distinguished Chair in Neurological Mobility Research and the acting chairman of the department. In January 2001, he became the Chair of the Department of Neurology at the University of Kansas Medical Center.

Dr. Barohn is board certified in adult neurology by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology with added qualifications in clinical neurophysiology. He is also certified by the American Board of Electrodiagnostic Medicine.

Dr. Barohn holds membership in many professional societies, including the American Academy of Neurology (fellow status), the American Neurological Association, and the Association of University Professors of Neurology. He has been listed in The Best Doctors in America, national and central regions. Dr. Barohn is on the national medical advisory boards for the Myasthenia Gravis Foundation and the Guillain-Barre Syndrome Foundation International. He was the recipient of the Alumni Achievement Award for Medicine from the University of Missouri - Kansas City for 2000.

His present research focuses on myopathies, (such as polymyositis and muscular dystrophy) motor neuron disease (such as aymotrophic lateral sclerosis), peripheral neuropathies, and myasthenia gravis. Dr. Barohn is the author of over 120 journal publications and over 40 book chapters on various aspects of neuromuscular disease. He serves on the editorial board for Neurology and the Journal of Clinical Neuromuscular Disorders. He was the Founding Chair and is now Past Chair of the Section of Neuromuscular Disease in the American Academy of Neurology.