Tristan T. Sands, MD, PHD
Locations and Appointments
CUIMC/Neurological Institute of New York
ColumbiaDoctors - West 86th Street
CUIMC/Harkness Pavilion
Insurances Accepted
Please contact the doctor's office to verify that your insurance is accepted.
- AETNA
- Affinity Health Plan
- Amida Care
- CIGNA
- Emblem/GHI
- Emblem/Hip
- Empire Blue Cross Blue Shield Healthplus
- Empire Blue Cross/Blue Shield
- Fidelis Care
- Healthfirst
- Local 1199
- Magnacare (National)
- Medicare
- Multiplan
- MVP Health Care
- Quality Health Management
- UnitedHealthcare
- VNSNY CHOICE
- WellCare
- World Trade Center Health Plan
About Tristan T. Sands, MD, PHD
Tristan Sands, MD, PhD is an assistant professor of neurology at Columbia University Irving Medical Center (CUIMC) in the Division of Child Neurology.
Dr. Sands completed his child neurology residency at the University of California, San Francisco under the mentorship of Dr. Roberta Cilio and epilepsy and clinical neurophysiology fellowships at Columbia University Irving Medical Center under the tutelage of Dr. Cigdem Akman and Dr. James Riviello.
Dr. Sands is a pediatric and neonatal neurologist and epileptologist with clinical and research focus on seizures, epilepsies and developmental and epileptic encephalopathies resulting from genetic causes. His work has described how de novo KCNQ3 variants are responsible for a novel form of neurodevelopmental disability. His research into treatments for genetic epilepsies has demonstrated that benign neonatal seizures caused by mutation of the KCNQ2 and KCNQ3 genes show a universal response to carbamazepine and that early use of carbamazepine reduces the length of hospital admission for these newborns.
Dr. Sands will be evaluating epilepsy patients with putative genetic etiologies in a new Translational Medicine Clinic for the Genetic Epilepsies and conducting research on precision medicine for the genetic epilepsies with the IGM.
Boards and other certifications:
ABPN – Epilepsy, Clinical Neurophysiology & Neurology with Special Qualification in Child Neurology
Additional clinical expertise:
Genetic causes of epilepsy, including but not limited to, variants in KCNQ3, KCNQ2, NBEA, CSNK2B, GNB1, SCN1A, SCN2A, SCN8A, KCNT1, STXBP1, CHD2, SYNGAP1, CDKL5, PCDH19, KCNH1, DEPDC5, PIGA, PIGW, GNAO1, UBE3A, DYRK1A, PRRT2, ARX, DNM1, TSC1, TSC2, KANSL1, GRIN2A, ZEB2, MECP2, MEF2C, SMC1A, etc.
Board Certifications
- Neurology with Special Qualification in Child Neurology
Expertise
Aicardi syndrome
Benign Neonatal Epilepsy
Dravet syndrome
Electrical Status Epilepticus during Sleep (ESES) and the Landau–Kleffner syndrome
Epilepsy
Epilepsy with Myoclonic-Atonic Seizures (Myoclonic-Astatic Epilepsy, Doose syndrome)
Epileptic Encephalopathies
Epileptic Seizures
Genetic Epilepsies
Lennox-Gastaut syndrome
Neonatal and Infantile Epileptic Encephalopathies
Neonatal Epilepsy
Neonatal Neurology
Neurogenetics
Ohtahara syndrome and Early Myoclonic Encephalopathy
Pediatric Epilepsy
Pediatric Neurology
West syndrome
Education
Fellowship: NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center
Residency: University Of California At San Francisco
Residency: University of California San Francisco Medical Center
Titles & Positions
Assistant Professor of Neurology and Pediatrics
Hospital Affiliations
NewYork-Presbyterian / Columbia University Irving Medical Center
NewYork-Presbyterian Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital
Education
- Residency: University of California San Francisco Medical Center
- Fellowship: NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center
- Residency: University Of California At San Francisco
Titles & Positions
- Assistant Professor of Neurology and Pediatrics
Board Certifications
- Neurology with Special Qualification in Child Neurology