Transforming Health Care through Innovative and Impactful Research

Dr. Seth Morgan is determined to find a cure for multiple sclerosis (MS) for, as he describes, "selfish" reasons, but his actions demonstrate anything but selfishness as his work continues to touch others. As Seth shares, "I want to find a cure that may help me but, more importantly, so my children or their children won't have to be in the position of living with MS and be searching for the cure."

Seth was diagnosed with MS in 2004. Prior to his retirement in 2006, he treated hundreds of MS patients over his 23-year career as a clinical neurologist. In his position, he regularly worked fifty to sixty hours a week. When he began experiencing difficulties in keeping up with cutting-edge therapeutic and scientific advances in the field due to fatigue, he concluded that he was no longer able to provide the level of care he felt his patients deserved, and decided to retire.

Since going on disability, Seth has focused his efforts on advocating for those affected by MS in various roles, including as a Commissioner and Chairman of the Commission on People with Disabilities in Montgomery County, Maryland; advocate for the National MS Society; and consumer reviewer for the Department of Defense Multiple Sclerosis Research Program (MSRP).

Seth describes his experience of serving as a consumer reviewer with the MSRP as "gratifying," and one in which, "patient advocates were not just heard but respected. The opinions of the patient advocate reviewers were not just welcomed but were insisted upon and frequently figured prominently in the peer review process. Each application was assessed not just on scientific merit, but also on its potential benefit to patients. Indeed, the involvement of consumer advocates in the application review processes is invaluable in shaping the MSRP's investments toward the program's mission of lessening the personal and societal impact of MS."

Even in his free time, he continues to touch the lives of others in the MS community. One of Seth's many hobbies includes making canes from interesting pieces of wood which he personalizes with his carvings. He unselfishly states, "I want MS relegated to the history books in the company of polio and other diseases for which cures have been found."