Dr. Labe C. Scheinberg, a New York neurologist and educator who helped improve the treatment for multiple sclerosis, has died at 78.
He died Feb. 22 of congestive heart failure, said his son, Dr. David Scheinberg.
In a long association with the Albert Einstein College of Medicine at Yeshiva University, Dr. Scheinberg was among the earliest advocates of addressing the problems of patients with multiple sclerosis.
In the 1970s, he co-founded Einstein’s multiple sclerosis center, which became a prototype for similar centers nationwide.
“Before Labe Scheinberg, for patients it was `diagnose and adios,”‘ said Dr. Nancy Holland, vice president for clinical programs of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society.
Born in Memphis, he served in the Navy before graduating from the University of Tennessee College of Medicine. He later served in the Air Force, as chief of the neuropsychiatry section at Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana. After an appointment at Columbia University, he joined Einstein in 1956.
Besides his son, Dr. Scheinberg is survived by three daughters. His wife of 46 years, Louise, died in 2000.
