Ziad Nasreddine

Ziad Nasreddine is a Canadian neurologist notable for creating the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) in 2005, widely used to assess mild cognitive impairment.

Biography Dr. Nasreddine is a Lebanese-Canadian physician, who graduated with a Medical Degree from the Université de Sherbrooke, Québec, and then completed a fellowship in Cognitive Neurology/Neurobehaviour at UCLA. In 1992, during his residency program, Dr. Nasreddine perceived the need for a more comprehensive cognitive screening adapted for clinicians, and thus developed his first comprehensive cognitive screening test. In 1996, after his fellowship, he decided to adapt his comprehensive screen and create a much quicker comprehensive assessment that is adapted to first-line specialty clinics with a high volume of patients. In 2005, the MoCA test was validated for clinical use. Dr. Nasreddine has since faced much criticism from fellow physicians for transitioning this free cognitive assessment tool to a monetization model in 2020.