Luis Zayas, MD, PT

Luis Zayas, MD, PT, is an experienced neurologist and the founder of GEM Neurology, PLLC, located in Clinton, Tennessee.

Dr. Zayas began his healthcare career in 1998 after earning his bachelor’s degree in physical therapy from the University of Puerto Rico. He became a licensed physical therapist in both New Jersey and Puerto Rico after successfully passing the National Physical Therapy Examination.

After working as a physical therapist for three years, Dr. Zayas pursued further education and earned his medical degree from UNIBE Medical School in 2005. His motivation for pursuing a medical degree was to acquire additional knowledge and skills to positively impact people's quality of life. He completed a full residency in internal medicine at St. Barnabas Hospital in the Bronx, New York, in 2009, followed by a neurology residency at Cooper University Hospital in Camden, New Jersey, in 2012. Additionally, he completed a year of training in neurocritical care at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio and finished his medical training with a fellowship in movement disorders at the University of Nebraska Medical Center.

Dr. Zayas specializes in movement disorders because he is drawn to a field of medicine that relies heavily on visual observation for diagnoses. Treating conditions like Parkinson's disease allows him to merge his internal medicine and neurology training with his physical therapy background, enabling him to provide holistic care. He finds the complexity of human movement and the associated diseases to be the most fascinating area of medicine. He also has a keen clinical interest in other areas of neurology, including headache medicine, epilepsy, stroke, behavioral neurology (dementia), and neurohospital medicine.

Dr. Zayas is triple board-certified in internal medicine, neurology, and epilepsy. He is passionate about fitness and nutrition, firmly believing that exercise and a healthy diet are fundamental to good health. In his personal life, he enjoys spending quality time with his wonderful wife and their three children. The family also has two lovable dogs: a large German Shepherd, who is the "dominant" presence in the household, and a spirited mix of Great Pyrenees and Australian Cattle Dog, whom they adopted from a shelter and who is full of personality.