We need to create awareness and increase knowledge about dementia in our society.
Current Work
Maritza is a neurologist who has specialized in dementia and brain health. Her work is focused on increasing dementia awareness through education and epidemiology.
Personal Hero
Her parents, Carlos and Poli
Words of Strength
Advocating national and internationally
Vision
To reduce the scale and impact of dementia, Maritza believes we need to create awareness and increase knowledge and build a multidisciplinary, multisite network to collaborate on prevention, timely diagnosis, and proper management of people affected by dementia.
Strategy
Maritza is testing short cognitive tests that can be used by primary care physicians to improve dementia diagnosis in diverse and vulnerable populations such as illiterate populations from urban and rural areas of her home country.
Impact
As an Atlantic Fellow, Maritza has gained a deeper understanding of brain health, neuroscience, and research. She has increased her skills in advocacy and diplomacy and now can translate science into specific actions to reduce the burden of dementia worldwide.
Motivation
Peru is a country with a rich diversity, but where misdiagnosis, lack of awareness, and poor knowledge about dementia is high. These are some of the factors that make working on the prevention, timely diagnosis, and proper management of dementia a great challenge.
Maritza Pintado-Caipa received her medical school training from the Universidad Nacional Jorge Basadre Grohmann of Tacna, Peru. She completed her neurology residency in the Instituto Nacional de Ciencias Neurológicas and graduated from the Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos of Lima, Peru.
Universidad Nacional Jorge Basadre Grohmann of Tacna, Peru
MD
Instituto Nacional de Ciencias Neurológicas
Neurology
Residency
Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos of Lima, Peru