Lawrence Coben, MD, who with his colleagues at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis developed a widely used scale that characterizes and tracks impairment in dementia patients, died of cancer Oct. 7, 2020, in Dedham, Mass. He was 94.
Coben was an emeritus associate professor of neurology at the university. He retired in 1991.
He first arrived at the School of Medicine in 1954 as an intern in neurology. He completed his internship, residency and a fellowship at the school before joining the neurology faculty in 1961. Initially, he specialized in sleep disorders and directed the electroencephalogram (EEG) lab at Barnes Hospital, now Barnes-Jewish Hospital.