Kore Liow, M.D.

Liow is a lifelong “island boy”, having born in Penang Island, Malaysia and grew up in Singapore. While a teenager in Singapore, he was awarded President Reagan’s Scholarship to study medicine at St George’s University in Grenada, West Indies before coming to the US in 1987. He developed his lifelong passion and “calling” for research while completing his fellowship at NINDS, NIH and saw how research made such a difference in the lives of people suffering from chronic incurable neurological conditions. He moved to Hawaii with his wife Michelle in 2009 to retire after a successful career as an academic research neurologist on the mainland. However, their hearts broke when they saw the huge need for neuroscience services and how people waited for months to get care especially those uninsured or underinsured or are travelling to mainland for advanced & research treatments. They then decided to use their skills and put their lifelong savings into establishing Hawaii Pacific Neuroscience (HPN) (then 2 employees in 2009) to meet an unmet need in the state serving the people of Hawaii suffering from neurological conditions. For over a decade now, HPN has brought over 150 groundbreaking neuroscience research therapies to benefit Hawaii’s patients who no longer need to travel to mainland. Not only has it provided amazing promising career opportunities for over 50 employees at the organization, these specialists and staff have also given back and mentored and trained over 80 residents and students every year in clinical rotations and research projects. Each year, HPN cared for over 20,000 patient visits from all Hawaiian Islands including over 1,000 research patient visits. True to its mission, our specialists are committed to care for those who need care the most including those underinsured or uninsured as part of our way of giving back to the community. Each year, over 50 global research organizations look to HPN to invest over $4 million in funding, innovative technology, medical care, research services to benefit Hawaii’s patients, researchers, specialists, employees, health care sector, and local economy. Dr. Liow is a seasoned investigator and spends majority of his time in research. He served as principal investigator (PI) for over 150 phase 0-IV clinical trials sponsored by the NIH, CDC and the industries. He has worked with sponsors/CROs on trial conception, design, development in submission to FDA trial approval, FDA IND application and submission of CSR (Clinical Study Report) to FDA. As PI, his performance matrix scores at 90% of patients randomized and 95% patients completing studies. His Clinical Research Center has a national reputation as a top-performing site and rapid site start up. Dr. Liow is a nationally sought-after key opinion leader and published over 50 peer reviewed PubMed publications and served on national advisory panel for the CDC, AMA, AAN and other. Dr. Liow serve as Clinical Professor of Medicine (Neurology), Graduate Faculty in Clinical & Translational Research at the University of Hawaii John A. Burns School of Medicine in Honolulu, Hawaii. He is the recipient of the 2021 University of Hawaii John Burns School of Medicine John M. Hardman, M.D. Award for Mentoring in Teaching. His team supervises the neurologic education of the residents and medical students at the medical school and currently mentors over 20 medical students at the BRITL (Brain Research, Innovation & Translation Labs) in various neuroscience research projects. Dr. Liow is self declared pragmatist and sees problems as opportunities and a firm believer in “problems don’t have to be problems unless you allow them to be. He believes that problem solving is a choice, not a function of circumstance. No matter how difficult the circumstances may seem, there is likely a solution that not only resolves the problem, but has the potential to improve lives and develop leadership. As an innovator, entrepreneur who constantly challenges the status quo, his passion is to create opportunities for others and challenge others to reach their maximum potential in life whether in their professional career or simply living out their best life. Every opportunity (and problem) is a gift from God so might as well make the best of it everyday! “In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity” Albert Einstein.