Bhavana Patel, DO

I am currently an assistant professor in the Division of Movement Disorders and Behavioral Neurology at the University of Florida. I joined the UF Department of Neurology and the Fixel Institute in 2019. After graduating from Butler University in 2008 with a double major in chemistry and Spanish, I got a master’s degree in biology at Purdue University. I completed medical school at the West Virginia School of Osteopathic medicine in 2013, followed by a preliminary internal medicine year and neurology residency at University of Kansas in 2017. During my residency I received awards for my research projects and was recognized by the medical student body for excellence in teaching. In my final year of training I served as chief resident.

I pursued a two-year fellowship in movement disorders and additional training in cognitive disorders and dementias at UF from 2017-2019. I have a personal connection to Lewy body dementia (LBD), and during my training I completed additional clinical and research training in Lewy body dementia under the mentorship of Dr. Melissa Armstrong. In 2018 I was the inaugural recipient of the Clinical Research Training Scholarship in Dementia with Lewy Bodies from the American Brain Foundation and the Mary E. Groff Charitable trust, in collaboration with the American Academy of Neurology.

My research interests include improving the delivery of specialized healthcare in Lewy body dementia, applications of technology to improve health outcomes, and neurostimulation for movement and cognitive disorders.

Currently my NIH-funded research focuses on developing a Lewy body dementia-centric telemedicine program with access to a multidisciplinary team of exerts in Lewy body dementia, using smartwatch technology to objectively measure life space mobility.

I’ve presented my research at multiple international conferences including an International Lewy Body Dementia Conference, International Congress of Parkinson’s Disease and Movement Disorder Society, Academy of Neurology, and World Parkinson Congress.