E-Mail karger@karger.com In Memoriam Neuroepidemiology 2016;46:118–119 DOI: 10.1159/000443503 John F. Kurtzke, MD (1926–2015) Ahmed Z. Obeidat  PGY-3 Resident, Department of Neurology and Rehabilitation Medicine, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, Ohio., USA When asked in-person about ‘the story of the EDSS?’ Dr. Kurtzke answered: ‘I was a resident, and we thought we had cured MS’, ‘we thought isoniazid was the answer’, ‘we needed a standardized scale to compare treatment groups, and therefore, the DSS was born’. Dr. Kurtzke re- cently published an article that described the journey of the EDSS, entitled: ‘On the origin of the EDSS’ [7]. Personally, I had the honor of meeting Dr. Kurtzke twice in my life. The first time was during the American Academy of Neurology Annual meeting, in the spring of 2015. There, we had corresponded via email and planned a meeting to talk about the origin of the EDSS. I was thrilled by his personality, humbleness, dedication and love of neurology. He was always extremely passionate about the EDSS and about how it was developed and had progressed. That meeting was brief albeit very inspira- tional. It was very exciting for a neurology resident to have the opportunity to meet with one of the all-times gi- ants of neurology. My second meeting with Dr. Kurtzke was very recent; on November 10, 2015 at the National Institute of Health (NIH) where he was invited as the guest speaker for the Clinical Neuroscience Grand Rounds. I happened to be there during a brief elective ro- tation in neuroimmunology. That morning, he delivered a prestigious, well-organized and astute scientific presen- tation entitled: ‘Epidemiology and the Cause of Multiple Sclerosis’. I was impressed by the amount of information John F. Kurtzke is considered one of the pioneers in the field of neuroepidemiology. His elite research molded our understanding of the occurrence and distribution of neu- rological illness. He was mostly known for his work on mul- tiple sclerosis (MS). Dr. Kurtzke studied the ‘epidemics’ of MS as well as the close association between the occurrence of MS, war, immigration, and infections [1]. His pivotal work provided insights into possible etiologies of the dis- ease, prompted researchers to investigate different aspects of the disease pathogenicity and most importantly unified our understanding that MS is a global disease that can affect any geographic area at any point in time. The latter concept was proved to be true through his seminal studies of the ‘de-novo’ epidemic of MS in the Faroe Islands [2]. His work was not restricted to MS, and extended to include the epidemiology of widespread neurological dis- orders such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis [3], myasthe- nia gravis [4], Parkinson’s disease [5], and stroke [6]. In addition to being a world-class neuroepidemiologist, he was a great general neurologist and a great observer of neurological signs. He is best known for the Kurtzke Dis- ability Status Scale (DSS) that was developed by him in 1955 and was later modified to become the Expanded- DSS (EDSS) in 1983 [7]. This sophisticated and detailed neurological assessment scale was developed to provide a useful clinical tool to be used in the assessment of disabil- ity in MS research [7]. Received: December 18, 2015 Accepted: December 18, 2015 Published online: January 20, 2016 Ahmed Z. Obeidat, MD, PhD Department of Neurology, University of Cincinnati 260 Stetson Street, Suite 2300 Cincinnati, OH 45267-0525 (USA) E-Mail ahmed.obeidat  @  uc.edu © 2016 S. Karger AG, Basel 0251–5350/16/0462–0118$39.50/0 www.karger.com/ned Downloaded by: 198.143.32.33 - 1/20/2016 8:17:26 PM