Neil Spector, MD, is the Sandra Coates Associate Professor of Medicine, and Associate Professor of Pharmacology and Cancer Biology at Duke University School of Medicine. He is also the Director of the Developmental Therapeutics at the Duke Cancer Institute. He is a leader in applying translational research to the clinical development of molecularly targeted personalized cancer therapies.
Dr. Spector is also the author of “Gone in a Heartbeat: A Physician’s Search for True Healing.” In the book he shares his personal experiences as a physician-scientist who nearly lost his life from a devastating case of misdiagnosed Lyme Disease. In 2009, his 17-year odyssey culminated in an emergent heart transplant after he ended up in an ICU and was given 72 hours to live without a transplant. He lived through it and overcame the odds by learning how to navigate the increasingly complex and often impersonalized nature of our current health care system. Since, he has become an advocate for those with Lyme disease and other difficult-to-diagnose diseases that often fall between the cracks of our current test-driven medical system.
Dr. Spector is on the Advisory Boards for the Bay Area Lyme Foundation, Global Lyme Alliance and the Dean Center for Lyme Disease Rehab at the Spaulding Rehab Hospital, Harvard Medical School. He has been interviewed on The Peoples Pharmacy and The Diane Rehm Show, in addition to other nationally syndicated radio shows. In Nov 2015, he was invited to speak at a White House/American Association of Advancement of Sciences sponsored think tank in DC where he talked about his personal experience as a patient-physician-scientist navigating personalized precision medicine.