Wisconsin Institute of Neuroscience (WINS)
Wisconsin Institute of Neuroscience or WINS is an entity based on the collaborative partnership of Children’s Wisconsin, the Froedtert & the Medical College of Wisconsin health network and the Clement J. Zablocki Veterans’ Administrations Medical Center under the leadership of Shekar N. Kurpad, MD, PhD, Founding Director.
The goal of WINS is to advance neurosciences through world-class clinical care, unique clinical trials, groundbreaking research and innovative education. Through WINS, we focus on the continuum of clinical care for adults and children, including lifespan care for patients with many neurological conditions, clinical research, and training new neuroscientists and clinicians.
Twenty-five years ago when I was a student at Duke, my mentor asked me, "What do you want to do for the rest of your life?" And I told him that I want to work in a neurosciences institute.
And then he asked me, "Where is this institute?" And I told him, "It hasn't been built yet. I'm going to build it."
My name is Shekar N. Kurpad. I am a neuroscientist and a neurosurgeon. I have worked here in Milwaukee now for the last 20 years, and I am the founding director of the Wisconsin Institute of Neuroscience — abbreviated as WINS. WINS is an entity that is based on true partnership, and the four partners are Froedtert & the Medical College of Wisconsin health network, Children's Wisconsin, the Medical College of Wisconsin and the Clement J. Zablocki VA Medical Center in Milwaukee.
Lifespan neurological care is one of the most important value propositions for WINS — which in a way does not exist anywhere else in the country. Here's an example — epilepsy, where we're really able to integrate the clinical care of an individual from childhood to late life. In addition, we're also doing key research in epilepsy to figure out what makes the brain work in such a way to create these seizures. And that's the stuff of basic research. That's the stuff which we can explore to see are there new treatments, different ways to counteract epilepsy.
Second, we have a value proposition that intentionally integrates basic science research that helps develop new clinical trials that, in turn, help deliver world-class clinical care for a child or an adult who has a neurological problem.
And then while we're doing all this, we educate and train the best of the future. So for the next 50 to 100 years we are the source of some of the best training in the world for new neuroscientists and neuroclinicians.
We've got world-class people. We've got world-class facilities. We offer world-class training, so I think we are able to really rise as a destination for patients with neurological problems.
