Dr. Ryan Fillmore Works the Hours After a Stroke or Seizure, When Every Minute Decides What a Patient Keeps
The Charlotte neurologist combines intensive care, epilepsy monitoring and stroke leadership, and he can talk a frightened family through it in four languages.
CHARLOTTE, N.C. Most people meet a neurologist in an office, by appointment, with time to talk. The patients Dr. Ryan Fillmore sees rarely have that luxury. They arrive after a stroke, a prolonged seizure or another sudden injury to the brain, and the decisions made in the first hours often shape how much of their life they get back.
Dr. Fillmore is a board certified neurologist who practices as a neurointensivist and critical care epileptologist at Novant Health Presbyterian Medical Center in Charlotte. His work combines two fields that rarely sit in one person: the intensive care of patients with life threatening neurological illness, and the close monitoring of brain activity that seizures demand.
He has also served the hospital as its Interim Stroke Medical Director. In that role he led work on the stroke protocols and care pathways the hospital follows when a patient comes through the door with symptoms, the step by step plans that decide how quickly a person is assessed, imaged and treated.
His road into medicine began in California. He earned a Bachelor of Science in Biological Sciences at the University of California, Irvine, and then his medical degree from the AUA College of Medicine.
He trained in neurology at Virginia Commonwealth University Health System, where he also completed an internship in internal medicine. Two fellowships followed. The first, in neurocritical care, took him back to UC Irvine Medical Center. The second, in epilepsy and critical care EEG, brought him to Yale New Haven.
The training shows in his credentials. He is board certified in neurology by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology and holds additional certifications in neurocritical care, critical care EEG and epilepsy monitoring.
Teaching is part of the job as well. Dr. Fillmore is an adjunct assistant professor in the Department of Neurology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he helps prepare the next generation of neurologists for the same high stakes work.
He speaks English, Spanish, Filipino and Tagalog. In a neurological emergency, when a family has to understand what is happening and make choices quickly, being able to explain things in their own language can matter as much as any scan.
His work centers on patients with stroke and seizure disorders and on the families beside them, and he has made compassionate, culturally aware care a deliberate part of how he practices.
Dynamo Times recognizes Dr. Ryan Fillmore for his work in neurocritical care, his leadership on stroke care and his commitment to training future neurologists.
About Novant Health Presbyterian Medical Center
Ryan Fillmore, MD, is a board certified neurologist, neurointensivist and critical care epileptologist at Novant Health Presbyterian Medical Center in Charlotte, North Carolina, where he has served as Interim Stroke Medical Director. A graduate of the University of California, Irvine and the AUA College of Medicine, he trained at Virginia Commonwealth University, UC Irvine Medical Center and Yale New Haven. He is an adjunct assistant professor of neurology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and speaks English, Spanish, Filipino and Tagalog.