Medical Career
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Dr. Reza Khatib was born into a religious family on October 11, 1930 in the Holy City of Mashad, Iran. He was one of nine children of his parents, Sadegh and Bibi. And from the age of ten he dreamed of being a neurosurgeon.
His dream began when a very popular Mashad public official sustained what would become a fatal head injury. An autopsy confirmed that death had resulted from an epidural hematoma, and an inquisitive Reza quickly learned that a neurosurgeon, if present, could have saved the man’s life. With the encouragements and advantages his parents were able to provide, Reza visualized a successful medical career, and possibilities for living and working in the United States.
He completed his early training at Tehran Medical School in 1956, and came to the United States in 1958. His started with a one year internship at Harlem Hospital (New York City),followed by a one year residency in pathology at Barnet Memorial Hospital (Paterson, New Jersey). This was followed by a one year neurological residency at Jewish Chronic Disease Hospital (Brooklyn, New York).
During the years of his New York practice Dr. Khatib was saddened and increasingly frustrated by the plight of patients and families when the diagnosis was Glioblastoma Multiforme, a prevalent and very often fatal form of brain cancer. He shared his sadness and frustrations with his wife Georgie and his medical colleagues. Addressing the need for a GBM cure would become his lifelong mission, and his primary motivation for creating the Dr. Reza Khatib Foundation.
The young Dr. Khatib soon enjoyed a great deal of career success. He and Georgie shared a capacity for empathy that would fuel their enduring dedication to patients and their families.
In the years that followed they initiated wide-reaching philanthropic projects in the United States and abroad, enlisting the support of a network of colleagues and personal friends. Their Khatib Foundation focused support on the fight against glioblastoma in all its forms with projects designed not only for today, but to last well into the future. See the Foundation Page for more on this work.
Reza was very successful at building interpersonal relationships with patients and colleagues, and his willingness to invest in teamwork was a powerful factor in seeking significant breakthroughs in clinical practice, neurology, oncology, the treatment of intracranial aneurysms, and the treatment of spinal cord injuries. And he learned important administrative skills from colleagues that would play an important role in the successes to come.
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Reza was also introduced to Dr. Jefferson Browder and Dr. Al Cook, who was serving as Chairman of Neurosurgery at Downstate Medical School and Kings County Hospital, where Reza’s full five year neurosurgical residency began. Each year of his residency, Reza’s empathy for glioblastoma patients and their families continued to grow, as did his frustration at having so little to offer them. His dedication to finding glioblastoma’s cure strengthened and his plan for what would become the Dr. Reza Khatib Foundation took root. |
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Working with Dr. Parza, Reza designed a new research-oriented position that would specifically target work on the gliobastoma problem. The result of their association endures as the Khatib/Parsa Endowed Chair for Treatment of Skull-Based Tumors at the University of California, San Francisco. After serving as the university’s first endowed chair, Dr. Parza moved on to build a wonderful reputation, cut all too short by his untimely death at age 47. He is survived by his wife, Dr. Charlotte Shum, who became associate professor of orthopedic surgery at the Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University. Today, Dr. Shum also serves as one of the distinguished trustees of the Khatib Foundation. |
Reza first met Dr. Abraham Rabiner in Brooklyn, New York. Dr. Rabiner was Chief of Neurology, and meeting him was a great honor. This photo of them was taken at the Jewish Chronic Disease Hospital of Brooklyn in 1959, the year John F. Kennedy was elected President of the United States.
It was also during that first resident year that Reza met Dr. Andy Parsa at Downstate Medical School, then involved in GBM research at Columbia University. Dr. Parsa impressed Reza from the first day they met with his intelligence and the energy he devoted to his research. Reza quickly decided to financially assist Dr. Parsa during his residency and his activities at Columbia University, University of California at San Francisco, and Northwestern University.
 After completing his fifth year of residency, Dr. Khatib became Chief of Neurosurgery at Brooklyn Medical Center. His own highly successful neurological private practice continued. During the years in New York Dr. Khatib’s colleagues and friends included three other neurosurgeons trained at Downstate Medical Center. These personal friends were Doctors John Miller, Richard Johnson and Fred Nobandegani. All were highly valued and respected colleagues.
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In his years of practice, Dr. Khatib published to professional to journals numerous times. See his Alzheimers Diagnosis
Late in his retirement, Reza addressed an area of diagnostic practice when he experienced the trauma of having a loved one exhibit the symptoms of dementia, and confronted a faulty diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease. And in resolving the situation at that time, he lent support to efforts to improve diagnostic practice in such cases. See Medicare’s Updated Policies in cases of suspected Alzheimer’s disease.
In 2015, Georgie developed memory problems that were at first incorrectly diagnosed, and she was placed on Alzheimer’s medications. Dr. Khatib was not satisfied with the thoroughness of the testing procedures that Georgie had received, and arranged a neurological consultation at New York’s Mount Sinai Hospital that included a revealing Amyloid PET Scan. That consultation and PET scan ruled out Alzheimer’s Disease and led to an intensive search for the true cause. Full cardiac testing revealed the actual problem and the correct type of treatment. A heart pacemaker corrected Georgie’s memory loss.
Dr. Khatib then initiated a pilot study through Martin County’s Kane Center and the University of Miami to provide detailed neurological examinations and PET scans to 100 patients then taking Alzheimer’s medications. The study found that 31% of participants evaluated did not have Alzheimer’s. This strongly suggested that before prescribing such medications, the testing of patients should include a full neurological examination, and should include PET scanning.
This graph provides an overview of that study’s results
More about Kane Center and University of Miami can be seen on the Foundation and Cross-Cultures pages.
Kane Center Honors
For his lifelong work, Reza was honored by Martin County’s Kane Center by his appointment as their 2017 recipient of the Sage Award in Medicine. Georgie was also an attendee; It was one of her last major functions with Reza, before her passing in 2023. Dr. Khatib and his Foundation were honored once again when he was asked to be an Honorary Presenter of the Center’s 2024 Sage Award in Medicine.
For more about the Kane Center facilities and its work in Alzheimer’s research or more about the activities of the Council on Aging of Martin County, please use our links.
