Dr Philip Scheltens studied at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Netherlands, gaining his MD in 1984, and PhD (magnetic resonance imaging in Alzheimer’s disease) in 1993. Clinical residencies in neurosurgery at the Municipal Hospital Slotervaart, and at the Vrije Universiteit Medical Centre, Amsterdam, as well as an associate professorship at Karolinska Institute, supported his academic development. Since 2000, Dr Scheltens is Professor of Cognitive Neurology and Director of the Alzheimer Center at the VU University Medical Center in Amsterdam. His main clinical and research interests are Alzheimer’s disease, vascular dementia, frontotemporal dementia, structural and functional imaging and CSF biomarkers.

Dr Scheltens is an active member of several societies including the Dutch Society for Neurology, the International Psychogeriatric Association, the American Academy of Neurology, the Alzheimer Imaging Consortium, the European Alzheimer’s Disease Consortium and the European College of Neuropsychopharmacology. He was associate editor of the Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry until 2010, book review editor of Alzheimer Disease and Associated Disorders as well as member of the editorial boards of Dementia and Geriatric Cognitive Disorders, Journal of NeuroImaging and International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, and acts as an ad hoc reviewer of scientific articles for, amongst others, The Lancet Neurology, Stroke, Journal of Neurology, Neurology, JNNP, Brain, Annals of Neurology and Science. He is a member of the scientific advisory panel of the French Plan Alzheimer, member of the Scientific advisory board of the Joint Programming Neurodegeneration and treasurer of the International Society for Vascular Behavioural and Cognitive Disorders (Vas-Cog).

Honours and Awards

  • 1998 Medaille d’Or Universiteit Lille.
  • 1997-98 Visiting Professor Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Zweden.
  • 1998-99 Visiting Professor Institute for the Health of the Elderly, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK
  • 2000 Membre d’honeur a titre etranger de Societe Francaise de Neurologie.
  • 2004 Visiting Professor, University of British Columbia, Canada
  • 2008-2013 Honorary Professor of Neurology, University College of London, Institute of Neurology, Queen Square

Scientific publications

More than 406 publications in peer reviewed journals, >550 scientific abstracts and many chapters in national and international books, as well as co-editor of the book Magnetic Resonance in Dementia (Springer) 2002 and co-editor of the book Clinical applications of fMRI (Oxford University Press).

Selected recent publications

  1. Frisoni GB, Fox NC, Jack CR Jr, Scheltens P, Thompson PM. The clinical use of structural MRI in Alzheimer disease. Nat Rev Neurol 2010;6:67-77.
  2. Scheltens P, Kamphuis PJGH, Verhey FRJ, Olde Rikkert MGM, Wurtman RJ, Wilkinson D, Twisk JWR, Kurz A. Efficacy of a medical food in mild Alzheimer’s disease: a randomized, controlled trial. Alzheimers Dement 2010;6:1-10
  3. Bouwman FH, Schoonenboom NSM, Verwey NA, van Elk EJ, Kok A, Blankenstein MA, Scheltens P, van der Flier WM. CSF biomarker levels in early and late onset Alzheimer’s disease. Neurobiol Aging 2009;30:1895-1901.
  4. Goos JDC, Kester MI, Barkhof F, Klein M, Blankenstein MA, Scheltens P, van der Flier WM. Patients with Alzheimer disease with multiple microbleeds. Relation with cerebrospinal fluid biomarkers and cognition. Stroke 2009;40:3455-3460.
  5. Inzitari D, Pracucci G, Poggesi A, Carlucci G, Barkhof F, Chabriat H, Erkinjuntti T, Fazekas F, Ferro JM, Hennerici M, Langhorne P, O’Brien J, Scheltens P, Visser MC, Wahlund LO, Waldemar G, Wallin A, Pantoni L, on behalf of the LADIS Study Group. Changes in white matter as determinant of global functional decline in older independent outpatients: three year follow-up of LADIS (leukoaraiosis and disability) study cohort. BMJ 2009;339:b2477