Ciro Ramos Estebanez, MD, PhD, MBA

Dr. Ciro Ramos‑Estebanez is a Harvard‑trained neurologist, internist, and neurointensivist. He serves as Associate Head for Clinical Affairs, Neurocritical Care Division Chief and Outpatient Clinic Director in the Department of Neurology and Rehabilitation at the University of Illinois Chicago (UIC) and UI Health. Dr. Ramos-Estebanez is nationally recognized as a physician‑scientist and serves as a Fellow (i.e., senior member) of the American Academy of Neurology, the American Neurological Association, and the Neurocritical Care Society.

Clinical Focus

Dr. Ramos‑Estebanez provides comprehensive neurocritical care with a commitment to underserved populations. His clinical expertise includes intracerebral hemorrhage and severe ischemic stroke, status epilepticus, malignant cerebral edema, prognostication after cardiac arrest, and brain death determination.

Research & Innovation

Dr. Ramos‑Estebanez directs the Clinical and Imaging Research Outcomes Lab at UIC, with work spanning basic, translational, and clinical research. His program focuses on behavioral neurophysiology, non‑invasive brain stimulation, and machine learning approaches in opioid use disorder, stroke, pain, and Parkinson’s disease. His collaborations with MIT‑trained engineers have been supported by the NIH. Select contributions include:

1. Basic science identifying how healthy human brains generate visual perceptions when presented with time‑locked, subthreshold crossmodal (tactile–visual) stimuli. This work was featured in The Journal of Neuroscience alongside an editorial.
2. Translational development and evaluation of novel non‑invasive brain stimulation paradigms integrated with high-density EEG, and machine learning to address opioid use disorder, chronic pain and other neurologic conditions.
3. Clinical research refining diagnostic criteria for medical conditions such as vascular cognitive impairment, and toxic leukoencephalopathy associated with inhalational heroin exposure (“chasing the dragon”) where he provided first descriptions of new complications in this context.
4. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=ramos-estebanez
5. Google Scholar Publications citations: https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=X9TUdS4AAAAJ&view_op=list_works&sortby=pubdate

Leadership & Program Building

As Division Chief, Dr. Ramos‑Estebanez established a state‑of‑the‑art 24‑bed Neurocritical Care Unit, an Intermediate Care Unit, and an Outpatient Neurocritical Care Clinic program. He developed UCNS and ABPN sanctioned Neurocritical Care Fellowships and led the creation of several internal clinical guidelines at UI Health.

Honors & Service

Dr. Ramos‑Estebanez is a Fellow (i.e., peer-elected honor recognizing significant contributions) of the American Academy of Neurology, the American Neurological Association, and the Neurocritical Care Society. He is a member of several honor societies (Alpha-Omega-Alpha, Sigma-Xi Scientific Research, UIC). He serves as an expert reviewer for leading journals in neurology and neurocritical care and contributes to the Neurocritical Care Society Grants Committee, amongst other commitments.

Linked-In Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ciro-ramos-estebanez-21b68223/