Dr. Angeles Garcia posthumously recognized for dementia research

Dr. Angeles Garcia, a KGH Research Institute clinician-scientist and Queen’s University professor who made key discoveries in Alzheimer’s disease, has been posthumously recognized with the Irma M. Parhad Award for Excellence. The award, given by the Consortium of Canadian Centres for Cognitive Research (C5R), honours Dr. Garcia’s outstanding contributions to the understanding and treatment of patients suffering from cognitive disorders. Dr. Garcia died earlier this year in Kingston. 

Simultaneously trained as a nurse and an MD in her home city of Barcelona, Dr. Garcia worked as an endocrinologist before moving to Canada in 1976. After obtaining her PhD in Medical Sciences at University of Alberta, she redirected her career to geriatric medicine and cognitive disorders. 

Dr. Garcia joined Queen’s University in 1997 where she worked in the Department of Medicine’s Geriatric Medicine division, in collaboration with Queen’s Centre for Neuroscience Studies. In addition to caring for patients across Kingston Health Sciences Centre’s KGH and Hotel Dieu Hospital sites and Providence Care, she conducted a broad program of research into the symptoms and causes of cognitive disorders such as Alzheimer’s. 

A key challenge of that disease has been early detection, which enables earlier diagnosis and treatment. It was Dr. Garcia’s work, in the late 2000s, with Sabine Mai, a Canada Research Chair at University of Manitoba, that led to the discovery that tiny sections of DNA called telomeres showed patterns that could be used to distinguish mild, moderate and severe Alzheimer’s. This method for diagnosing Alzheimer’s resulted in two issued patents and one pending patent, and this promising research continues. 

A passionate advocate for patient wellness, Dr. Garcia was beloved by her patients and their families for her compassion, humor and generosity. Typical of her “patient-first” philosophy, she established a memory loss clinic (now located at Providence Care Hospital) that provided support and comfort to individuals with cognitive illnesses across the Kingston region. A tireless educator, she also created and implemented training modules for family doctors for earlier detection of mild dementia, leading to earlier treatment and shorter clinic waits. 

Dr. Garcia co-founded national and international clinical and research groups for advancing research and treatment in dementia. She also travelled to Cuba to provide medical aid and to El Salvador to teach literacy and monitor elections, fundraised for organizations such as Doctors Without Borders and Amnesty International, and was very involved in her local Alzheimer’s Society.   

Those who worked with Dr. Garcia praised her as a gifted teacher and mentor, a brilliant research colleague and an exceptional role model to a generation of clinicians and researchers in training. 

But above all they praised her care for her patients and their families. “She fought fiercely for the vulnerable and devoted her career to improving the lives of patients and families living with dementia,” one of her supporters wrote. “She made a significant impact on many whose path she crossed.”

About the Irma M. Parhad Award:
The award is named in honour of Irma M. Parhad M.D who had a highly productive, though short career as a neurologist and neuropathologist. In 1985 she was awarded an Alberta Heritage Foundation Medical Research Scholarship and initiated a program of research in neurodegenerative disease at the University of Calgary in Alberta. She founded and directed the Dementia Research Clinic at the University of Calgary/Foothills Hospital. Her work in the molecular basis of aging and degeneration of the nervous system flourished. She was an active member of the American Association of Neuropathologists and the Society for Neuroscience, and a member of the editorial board of the Journal of Neuropathology and Experimental Neurology. In 1989 she became a Medical Research Council of Canada Scientist and in 1992, Professor of Pathology and Clinical Neurosciences at the University of Calgary.

About C5R: 
The Consortium of Canadian Centres for Clinical Cognitive Research (C5R) is a registered non-profit consortium of researchers committed to the pursuit of dementia research. C5R was founded in 1991 by a group of neurologists, geriatricians and psychiatrists from across Canada, and is the only Canadian consortium conducting trials in dementia and mild cognitive impairment.