Georges Ghacibeh, MD, MS, FAAN

                  Dr. Ghacibeh is a neurologist with special expertise in Epilepsy, Cognitive Neurology, and Sleep Medicine. He graduated from medical school at the Lebanese University in Beirut, then moved to New York where he completed a residency in Neurology at New York University. He served as Chief Resident of Neurology at New York University Medical Center and Bellevue Medical Center. He then moved to Gainesville, Florida, to complete a one year fellowship in Behavioral and Cognitive Neurology, followed by a second fellowship in Clinical Neurophysiology, Epilepsy, and Sleep Medicine. Dr. Ghacibeh is board certified in Neurology, Clinical Neurophysiology and Sleep Medicine by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology and in Clinical Neurophysiology and Video-EEG monitoring by the American Board of Clinical Neurophysiology.

      Dr. Ghacibeh is an associate professor of neurology at the Hackensack Meridian School of Medicine, and chief of neurology at Pascack Valley Medical Center, and has previously served as assistant professor of Neurology and Medical Director of the EEG laboratory at the University of Florida Medical Center for three years, and co-director of the comprehensive epilepsy center at Hackensack University Medical Center. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Neurology and has published numerous articles in peer-reviewed medical journals and chapters in medical textbooks.

EDUCATION

• Masters of Science in Clinical Investigation: University of Florida, Gainesville, FL.

• Medical Doctor: Lebanese University, Faculty of Medical Sciences, Beirut, Lebanon

POST- GRADUATE TRAINING

Fellowship:

• Clinical Neurophysiology / Epilepsy / Sleep Medicine: University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida

• Behavioral and Cognitive Neurology / Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation: University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida

Neurology Chief Resident: New York University / Bellevue Medical Center, NY

Neurology Residency: New York University / Bellevue Medical Center, New York, NY

Internship: Staten Island University, Department of Medicine, Staten Island, NY

CLINICAL AND RESEARCH INTERERSTS

Pediatric and adult epilepsy

Autism and cognitive disorders

Sleep Medicine

BOARD CERTIFICATION

American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology – Neurology

American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology – Clinical Neurophysiology

American Society of Neuroimaging – CT/MRI

American Board of Clinical Neurophysiology – Video-EEG Monitoring

American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology – Sleep Medicine

American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology – Epilepsy

CURRENT AND PAST POSITIONS

Associate Professor of Neurology at the Hackensack Meridian School of Medicine

Chief of Neurology, Pascack Valley Cedical Center

2007 – 2012: Co-Director, Comprehensive Epilepsy Center, Hackensack University Medical Center, Hackensack, NJ

2004 – 2007: Assistant professor, Department of Neurology, Univ. of Florida, Gainesville, FL

2005 –/2007: Medical Director, EEG Laboratory, Shands Hospital, Gainesville, FL

2005 – 2007: Co-Director, Clinical Neurophysiology Fellowship, Department of Neurology, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL

COMMITTEES / SOCIETIES

American Academy of Neurology

American Epilepsy Society

American Clinical Neurophysiology Society

American Academy of Sleep Medicine

PUBLICATIONS

1. Ghacibeh GA, Heilman KM. Creative innovation with temporal lobe epilepsy and lobectomy. J Neurol Sci. 2013 Jan 15;324(1-2):45-8

2. El Khashab M, Liu WC, Fried A, El Khashab Y, Nejat F, Gabay T, Pierce S, Ghacibeh GA. When the Direct Electrical Cortical Stimulation Failed:A Case Report. Journal of Neurology Research. 2011 April: 30-33 (Abstract).

3. Anderson KL, Rajagovindan R, Ghacibeh GA, Meador KJ, Ding M. Theta Oscillations Mediate Interaction between Prefrontal Cortex and Medial Temporal Lobe in Human Memory. Cereb Cortex. 2010 Jul;20(7):1604-12

4. Georges A. Ghacibeh, Jeffrey D Smith; Steven Roper, Robin Gilmore, Stephen Eisenschenk. Seizure Recurrence following Epilepsy Surgery: is post-operative EEG helpful? Seizure. 2009 Apr;18(3):193-6. 

5. David B. FitzGerald, Gregory P. Crucian, Jeannine B. Mielke, Brian V. Shenal, David Burks, Kyle B. Womack, Georges Ghacibeh, Valeria Drago Paul S. Foster, Edward Valenstein, Kenneth M. Heilman. Effects of Donepezil on Semantic Processing and Verbal Memory in Healthy Adults; A Preliminary Study. Behavioral and Cognitive Neurology. Cogn Behav Neurol. 2008 Jun;21(2):57-64.

6. Chang-Chia Liu, Panos M. Pardalos, W., Art Chaovalitwongse, Deng-Shan Shiau, Georges Ghacibeh, Wichai Suharitdamrong, and J. Chris Sackellares. Quantitative complexity analysis in multi-channel intracranial EEG recordings forms epilepsy brains. Journal of Combinatorial Optimization 2008 April; 15(3): 276-286

7. Michael Bewernitz, Georges Ghacibeh, Onur Seref Panos Pardalos, Chang-Chia Liu and Basim Uthman. Quantification of the Impact of Vagus Nerve Stimulation Parameters on Electroencephalographic Measures. American Institute of Physics Conference Proceedings 2007 Nov 5;953:206-219

8. Stanislav Busygin, Oleg Prokopyev, Michael Bewernitz, Nikita Boyko, Panos Pardalos, Georges Ghacibeh. Biclustering EEG Data from Epileptic Patients Treated with Vagus Nerve Stimulation. American Institute of Physics Conference Proceedings 2007 Nov 5;953:220-231

9. Basim Uthman, Michael Bewernitz, Chang-Chia Liu and Georges Ghacibeh. Optimization of epilepsy treatment with vagus nerve stimulation. American Institute of Physics Conference Proceedings 2007 Nov 5;953:308-315

10. Georges A. Ghacibeh, Joel I Shenker, Katherine Winter, William J. Triggs, and Kenneth M. Heilman. Dissociation of neglect subtypes with transcranial magnetic stimulation. Neurology 2007 Sep 11;69(11):1122-7.

11. Georges A. Ghacibeh, Ravi Mirpuri, Valeria Drago, Yong Jeong, Kenneth M Heilman, William J Triggs. Ipsilateral Motor Activation during Unimanual and Bimanual Motor Tasks. Clinical Neurophysiology. 2007 Feb;118(2):325-32.

12. Georges A. Ghacibeh, Joel I. Shenker, Brian V Shenal, Basim M. Uthman, and Kenneth M. Heilman. The influence of Vagus Nerve Stimulation on memory. Cogntive and Behavioral Neurology Cogn Behav Neurol. 2006 Sep;19(3):119-122.

13. Georges A. Ghacibeh, Joel I. Shenker, Brian V Shenal, Basim M. Uthman, and Kenneth M. Heilman. Effect of Vagus Nerve Stimulation on creativity and cognitive flexibility. Epilepsy Behav. 2006 Jun;8(4):720-5

14. William J. Triggs, Georges A. Ghacibeh, Utaka Springer, and Dawn Bowers. Lateralized Asymmetry of Facial Motor Evoked Potentials. Neurology. 2005; 65(4):541-4

15. Ghacibeh GA and Heilman KM. Progressive affective aprosodia and prosoplegia. Neurology 2003;60(7),1192-4 (Pubmed)

BOOK CHAPTERS

1. Georges A. Ghacibeh. Seizures and Status Epilepticus, in Civetta, Taylor, and Kirby’s Critical Care, 4th Edition. Gabrielli A, Layon J and Yu M, eds, Lippincott, Williams & Wilkins, Philadelphia, 2007.

2. C.C. Liu, W. Suharitdamrong, W.A. Chaovalitwongse, G.A. Ghacibeh, and P.M. Pardalos. Clustering Neurophysiological Signals to Study Brain Disorders, in W.A. Chaovalitwongse, S. Butenko, P.M. Pardalos, eds, Clustering Challenges in Biological Networks, World Scientific, Singapore, 2008.

3. Georges A. Ghacibeh. Tonic Seizures, in The Educational Kit on Epilepsies, 2nd Edition, C P Panayiotopoulos (Editor), Volume 5, Focal Epilepsies: Seizures, syndromes and management.

4. Georges A. Ghacibeh. Clonic Seizures, in The Educational Kit on Epilepsies, 2nd Edition, C P Panayiotopoulos (Editor), Volume 5, Focal Epilepsies: Seizures, syndromes and management

5. Georges A. Ghacibeh. Hyperkinetic Seizures, in The Educational Kit on Epilepsies, 2nd Edition, C P Panayiotopoulos (Editor), Volume 5, Focal Epilepsies: Seizures, syndromes and management