Maria Sam, M.D.
Assistant Professor
Director, Medical Student Neurology Clerkship
Clinical INTERESTS: Attention deficit disorder of childhood and adulthood, reading deficit disorders and remediation, placebo controlled drug studies, Traumatic brain injury
EDUCATION:
1979-1983 Loyola College
Baltimore, MD
B.S. (Biology)
1983-1984 University of Maryland at Baltimore
Baltimore, MD
M.S. (Anatomy)
1985-1989 Ponce School of Medicine
Ponce, Puerto Rico
M.D.
POSTDOCTORAL TRAINING:
07/89-06/90 Medicine Intern
Franklin Square Hospital
Department of Medicine
Baltimore, MD
07/90-10/93 Neurology Resident
1991-1993 Chief Resident
West Virginia University
Department of Neurology
Morgantown, WV
11/93-10/95 Clinical Neurophysiology/Epilepsy Fellowship
Mayo Clinic
Rochester, MN
07/14-16/95 Current Topics in Neurophysiology Intraoperative Monitoring
3/03-07/97 Comprehensive Clinical Neurophysiology
08/16-08/23/99 Sleep Medicine Review Course
PROFESSIONAL LICENSURE:
1993-Present State of Minnesota,
1996-Present State of North Carolina,
1997-Present State of Maryland
SPECIALTY CERTIFICATION:
1996 Diplomat in Neurology
American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology
1997 American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology
Added Qualifications in Neurophysiology
Born in Cuba and raised in Baltimore, Maryland, Dr. Maria Sam did her undergraduate work in biology at Loyola College in Baltimore. She then received her Master's Degree in Anatomy at the University of Maryland where she worked for a year in the Neurosurgery Department. She then entered Ponce School of Medicine in Ponce, Puerto Rico where she was the student representative to the Academic Senate for 3 consecutive
years, and participated in the Young Scientist Program at NIH. She graduated second in her class and became a member of Alpha Omega Alpha.
Dr. Sam did her internship in Medicine at Franklin Square Hospital, at Johns Hopkins Affiliated Hospital in Baltimore. She continued her training at West Virginia University in Morgantown where she was a neurology resident for 3 years and chief resident for 2 years. She then finished her post-graduate medical training by completing a two-year fellowship in Neurophysiology and Epilepsy at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota.
She joined the Department of Neurology as an Assistant Professor in early 1996 and holds the distinction of being the first female physician to join the Neurology faculty at Wake Forest University School of Medicine.
Her interests include epilepsy, with special interest in the inherited epilepsies, women's issues in epilepsy, and novel ways to image the brain.
She devotes 75% of her time pursuing these interests by caring for patients in the Epilepsy Monitoring Unit, interpreting EEG's, Evoked Potentials, and sleep studies. Dr. Sam cares for patients in the Outpatient Epilepsy Clinic where she has been director since September, 1998. She also cares for patients in the general neurology inpatient services and consult services. The remainder of her time is dedicated to teaching medical students, residents, and fellows, as well as conducting clinically relevant research.
Dr. Sam is a diplomat of the American Board of Psychiatry and
Neurology and has successfully completed the Added Qualifications in Neurophysiology Examination. She is a member of the following organizations: National Academy of Science, New York Academy of Science, American EEG Society, American Academy of Sleep Medicine, American Academy of Neurology, and the Medical Foundation Clinical Scholars Program at Wake Forest University School of Medicine.
When she's not at work, Dr. Sam enjoys spending time with her 3 children, and her husband, who is a physician in Emergency Medicine. Together, they enjoy the outdoors - bicycling, visiting national parks, and reading. Dr. Sam devotes part of her time trying to increase interest in neuroscience by taking part in the "Neuroscience in the Classroom" program developed by the American Academy of Neurology. This program seeks to disseminate knowledge and spark interest in neuroscience among children from K-12 grades.
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Journal Articles:
Meador K, Chadwick D, Clayton-Smith J, Pennell P, Liporace J, Kalayian L, and the NEAD Study Group. In Utero Antiepileptic Drug Exposure: Fetal Death and Malformations. Journal of Neurology (accepted for publication March 2006)
Sam M. Proven strategies to manage reproductive health in epilepsy patients. Practical Neurology 2003; 2:49-53.
Gibbs TS, Fleischer AB, Feldman SR, Sam MC, O'Donovan, CA. Health care utilization in patients with migraine: demographics and patterns of care in the ambulatory setting. Headache 2003 Apr; 43(4):330-5.
Sam MC, So EL. Significance of epileptiform discharges in patients without epilepsy in the community. Epilepsia 2001; 42(10):1273-1278.
So E, Sam M, Lagerlund T. Postictal Central Apnea as a Cause of SUDEP: Evidence From a Case of Near-SUDEP. Accepted for publication in Epilepsia on 6/00.
Sam M, Gutmann L. Spinal myoclonus following intrathecal administration of diatrizone meglumine. J Neuroimag 1996;6:256-258
Keefover R, Sam M, Bodensteiner J, Nicholson A. Hypersomnolence and pure central sleep apnea associated with the Chiari I malformation. J Child Neurol 1995;10:65-67.
Sam M, Gutmann L, Shochet S, Himanslru D. Picks disease: a case clinically resembling amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Neurology 1991;41:1831-1833