Pooja Khatri

Pooja Khatri, MD, MS, is chair of the Yale Medicine Department of Neurology, and chief of Neurology at Yale New Haven Hospital and the Yale New Haven Health System. She is a world-renowned expert in stroke care and research, and she is passionate about helping those with neurological conditions achieve the best possible outcomes.

Dr. Khatri reminds people who are concerned for themselves or a loved one with a neurological condition that treatments have advanced tremendously for many diseases of the brain and other parts of the nervous system. “People who have just gotten a new diagnosis don’t always realize how much care has changed in recent decades,” she says. “There are treatments available now that didn’t exist in the past.”

While there is still a lot to learn, Dr. Khatri says, “In my career, I’ve seen stroke go from a disease that we often couldn't do much about to a potentially reversible disease if the patient gets to the hospital fast enough.” (Patients who get to the hospital within hours of the first symptoms of an ischemic stroke may get a type of medicine called a thrombolytic, or "clot-busting," drug, or procedure called mechanical thrombectomy, or “clot extraction,” to improve their chances of recovery. Faster treatment gives the best chances of success.) She notes there also have been significant breakthroughs in preventing stroke, as well as the care of such conditions as Alzheimer’s disease, multiple sclerosis, and Parkinson’s disease.

Dr. Khatri became interested in medicine at a young age. Her father, who dreamed of studying medical science but became an engineer instead, was a major influence on her decision to pursue medicine. As she got older, a pivotal moment came during a trip to India when she visited a town where the only available doctor was a veterinarian. That experience reinforced her determination to become a doctor and help people.

In addition to her work with patients, Dr. Khatri is a professor of neurology at Yale School of Medicine. She has significantly advanced the field of stroke therapy with research that spans acute stroke therapy, prevention of early stroke recurrence, development of radiological biomarkers, and clinical trial design. She has held multiple leadership positions in the United States and abroad. One of these positions, since 2013, has been codirector of the National Coordinating Center of StrokeNet, which is the main infrastructure for National Institutes of Health-funded multicenter stroke trials.