José Merino got his medical degree from the Universidad Anahuac in Mexico City and an MPhil degree in the History of Medicine from Cambridge University. He did a residency in neurology and psychiatry at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York and a fellowship in vascular neurology at the University of Western Ontario, where he also studied clinical epidemiology. Since 2001 his clinical and research focus has been the evaluation and treatment of patients with acute stroke. Along with his work as US clinical research editor with the BMJ, he is a neurologist with Johns Hopkins Community Physicians in Bethesda, Maryland.

Competing Interests

Have you in the past five years accepted the following from an organisation that may in any way gain or lose financially from the publication of papers in the BMJ?

Reimbursement for attending a symposium?
No

A fee for speaking?
Yes. I have moderated scientific sessions and have given lectures at courses at several Annual Meetings of the American Academy of Neurology, and I received an honorarium for these sessions.

A fee for organising education?
No

Funds for research?
Between 2007 and 2012 my salary was supported in part by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke through a contract between the NIH and Suburban Hospital, where I was Medical Director of the Stroke Program. I have received honoraria for adjudicating stroke outcomes in 2 NIH-funded studies: the Women’s Health Initiative and the Stroke Prevention in Small Subcortical Strokes (SPS3) study.

Funds for a member of staff?
No

Fees for consulting?
No

Have you in the past five years been employed by any organisation that may in any way gain or lose financially from the publication of papers in the BMJ?
No

Do you hold any stocks or shares in an organisation?
Not in a health care related organization (other than shares held by mutual funds in my retirement plans).

Do you have any other competing financial interests?
No

I have no competing interests.