Meet Pooja Khatri, MD: A Leader in Stroke and Neurological Care

Pooja Khatri, MD, a world expert on stroke, became interested in medicine at an early age, inspired in part by her father. Growing up in India, Dr. Khatri’s father dreamed of becoming a scientist, but had to choose a more practical path of mechanical engineering to support his family. Later, after moving his family to Chicago, he inspired his daughter’s passion for science, helping her with science projects and nurturing her curiosity about the brain.

Her pivotal moment came when she visited a remote village in India where the only available doctor was a veterinarian. Witnessing the lack of access to medical care strengthened her resolve to become a physician and help people directly.

That’s a short version of Dr. Khatri’s early journey—one that ultimately led her to Yale School of Medicine, where she now serves as chair of the Department of Neurology, and chief of neurology at Yale New Haven Hospital and the Yale New Haven Health System.

Her story mirrors the transformation in neurological care over the past few decades, particularly in stroke treatment, where her own research has shaped major advances. She notes that there has been other remarkable progress in understanding and treating such common neurological conditions as Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer’s disease, and other disorders of the brain and nervous system.

“People who have just gotten a new diagnosis don’t always realize how much neurological care has changed in recent decades,” Dr. Khatri says. “There are treatments available now that didn’t exist in the past, making neurological diseases more treatable than many people realize.”

Dr. Khatri brings extensive experience to her role as chair, including serving as director of the national coordinating center of StrokeNet, the main infrastructure for National Institutes of Health (NIH)-funded multicenter stroke trials. With two decades of continuous NIH funding and more than 300 publications, she has shaped the field of acute stroke care.

Before joining Yale Medicine, Dr. Khatri served as vice chair and division chief in the Department of Neurology and Rehabilitation Medicine at the University of Cincinnati, and director of the vascular neurology division and of the multidisciplinary University of Cincinnati stroke team, which serves 2.5 million people in a tristate area.

Dr. Khatri takes the helm at Yale’s neurology department during a transformational time: the upcoming Adams Neuroscience Center, which will feature two patient care towers in New Haven, is scheduled to finish construction and open in 2027. The center will provide personalized neurological care, including medical, surgical and emerging therapies, while driving new discoveries that expand what’s possible in the treatment of brain and nervous system disorders.

Here, Dr. Khatri shares her vision for the future of neurology at Yale Medicine.

A few things played into this decision. I’d been a very dedicated stroke clinician and researcher, and I led the stroke program at the University of Cincinnati and StrokeNet, which is a national endeavor, but I felt ready to take on something new. I was drawn to Yale’s leadership and their vision for integrating clinical care, research, and education—all areas I’m passionate about.

Ultimately, it’s about providing the best care for patients. My goal is to make Yale as patient-centered and accessible as possible, ensuring consistent quality across the entire health system—not just in one location or building.

My father was a huge influence. He worked on my first science projects with me, and I ended up going to an international science fair, which was really exciting for me as a kid. He was unhappy that I wanted to go to Stanford, far from home, but proudly supported my decision to become a neuroscientist. I knew there was still so much uncharted territory around the brain, and that was fascinating to me—and I knew that was where I was headed in some capacity.

In my third year of college, I went to India on a study abroad program. An orphanage near where I was staying offered to let me go with them to some of the outlying villages. I didn't know what I was signing up for, but it turned out that they were bringing a veterinarian to provide medical care for humans. We were riding in a jeep with the veterinarian and swarms of people held up their kids, asking questions about what to do. Seeing that lack of access firsthand made me realize I wanted to help people directly—through both clinical care and research.

Absolutely. He was born in what is now Pakistan, and during the 1947 Partition, his family fled their home and had to rebuild their lives from nothing. Despite those hardships, he nurtured a deep love of science and passed that on to me.

Both of my parents gave me incredible inspiration. My mom modeled academic strength as one of the first female graduates from India’s most prestigious MBA program and my father especially pushed me to pursue my scientific potential. That drive—and the desire to help others—has stayed with me throughout my career.

In my career, I’ve seen stroke go from a disease with limited treatments to a potentially reversible disease. If someone gets to the hospital fast enough—within hours of symptom onset for most people—and is given a clot-busting drug such as tissue plasminogen activator (tPA) or a procedure called mechanical thrombectomy, we can often reverse the damage. Many patients recover almost completely in the emergency department. We have even been able to help people having the most severe strokes, so that more patients are much better within hours of their hospitalization.

That message really needs to get out there—and not just for stroke. We have some really exciting therapies now for other neurological conditions. We finally have drugs that can change disease progression in people with Alzheimer’s disease, for example. We are much better at managing Parkinson’s disease. Multiple sclerosis is no longer the disabling disease it once was.

My research has focused on improving acute stroke treatment and patient recovery. I’m especially excited about clinical trials of newer medications that could transform emergency stroke care.

For example, I’m excited about a novel drug that works better than our standard “clot-busting drugs.” People may have heard of tPA, which is given for ischemic stroke; in 2025, the Food and Drug Administration approved the use of tenecteplase (TNK), which more hospitals are using now with better results. My team is now studying another promising drug in clinical trials called TS23, which releases the brakes on the tPA made by our own bodies and may avoid some of the side effects of tPA and TNK.

I’m involved in leading VERIFY, a national clinical trial validating biomarkers to predict motor recovery after a stroke. If a patient is in the hospital and paralyzed on one side of the body, we want to know, based on the data we gather using transcranial magnetic stimulation and MRI, what their mobility will be in three months—who will be able to move their arm and who will not. This could give us an opportunity to make better-informed, individualized decisions on therapies and rehabilitation approaches for particular patients and inform more efficient clinical trials in this space.

We need to do more research into helping patients get back the quality of life they had before they had a stroke, or as close as possible. We are able to make a big impact with what we do in those first 24 hours in the emergency department, and we have some strong data to suggest that we can make those same kinds of impacts with neuro-recovery strategies. But we need to fully prove the approaches.

The work in biomarker validation ties into my broader interest in improving trial designs to get answers more quickly for patients. I am excited about our first platform trial in stroke, called STEP. Platform trials let us address multiple clinical trial questions at once more efficiently, both in terms of statistics and operations. STEP is focused on optimizing the care of patients with the most severe types of strokes.

Yes. My first professional trip to India opened the door to long-term collaborations and advocacy in global stroke care. I later served as secretary of the World Stroke Organization. I then got involved with the American Heart Association and helped build the first primary stroke center certifications in the Middle East/North African region.

It’s deeply fulfilling work, and while my primary focus now is learning my new job at Yale, I’ll continue to support those efforts whenever possible.

My research portfolio including StrokeNet remains active in my new role, and this includes co-chairing the Global Alliance of Independent Networks focused on Stroke trials (GAINS) to help build and partner with clinical trial networks across the world to share best practices and expand access to stroke research worldwide.

One of my secrets to success is my wonderful husband, who has been a stay-at-home dad. When I’m not working, I love spending time with my family. Lately I’ve been focusing on strength training, which we all need to do as we get older. And then, for me, it's really about my relationships. I make time available for my friends and my family. I try to work in a visit with a friend whenever I can.

My work also gives me a lot of joy, so that certainly motivates me to work more than most people. But I will say there is no doubt that you are going to be a better doctor if you are taking care of your own wellbeing, and your mental health and happiness. Balance and wellbeing are key to sustaining compassion in medicine.