Have a news story you would like to feature? Complete the online form here!
AINA Member Dr. Pooja Khatri, MD, MSc, from the Department of Neurology at the University of Cincinnati, served as lead author of the long-awaited PRISMS trial in the July 2018 Journal of the American Medical Association regarding the PRISMS Randomized Clinic Trial:
Effect of Alteplase vs Aspirin on Functional Outcome for Patients With Acute Ischemic Stroke and Minor Nondisabling Neurologic Deficits
For more information, please click here for the full article. Congratulations to Dr. Khatri!
Dr. Kapil Sethi's article was featured in the June 2018 "The Lancet" titled: All about water buffaloes and refusing to be boring. Dr. Sethi is a previous AINA Lifetime Achievement Award Winner and AINA Lifetime Member.
View the first paragraph of his article and click here to read more!
You may know him as Professor Emeritus of Neurology at the Medical College of Georgia, Augusta University (Augusta, GA, USA), as director of the College’s Movement Disorders Program (1985–2016), or perhaps as director of its National Parkinson’s Foundation Center of Excellence (2000–2009). You may know him from the many (many) clinical trials on Parkinson’s disease, restless legs syndrome, and other movement disorders with which he has been involved. Many of you will know him best as your teacher— the expert in movement disorders who tried to make your medical training more meaningful, more relevant, and whenever possible, more fun. His own primary school teachers back in the Punjabi town of Sultanpur, however, knew him as the little rascal who used to run away from school and who had to be dragged back to class (yes, truly held on jute mats under a shade tree). While he tells me his story, I wonder if what I write should be a tribute to him or to those teachers, whose brilliant educational diagnosis and application of the right treatment planted the seed that grew into those different Kapils we know today.
Dr. Mike Sharma, Professor of Neurology at McMaster University in Hamilton, ON, Canada, was one of the lead authors of the NAVIGATE-ESUS study published online May 16 in the New England Journal of Medicine. The large international study compared rivaroxaban vs. aspirin for stroke prevention in patients with stroke of undetermined etiology. Click here for more information.
AINA is pleased to continue to grow our Association of Indian Neurologists in America. We have welcomed many new lifetime members over the last few months, along with in training members and annual members! Please join us in welcoming these great new lifetime members that joined us in May!
The mission of the International Liaison Committee is to coordinate overseas activities of AINA. If you have interest, please send a 1-2 paragraph statement of interest to the AINA Office for review and consideration.
Last weekend, 30 AAN members graduated from the 16th annual Palatucci Advocacy Leadership Forum (PALF), the AAN’s prestigious, award-winning leadership program. They joined 443 graduates from 47 states (along with Washington, DC, and Puerto Rico) and 17 other countries.
Each advocate also received legislative training, which consisted of mock congressional office visits to support the solutions to the opioid crisis that the AAN is currently pushing on Capitol Hill. The advocates concluded the weekend with an action plan to move forward on an issue they’re most passionate about, such as increased research funding and better stroke care for minority populations.
Effective April 30th, 2018, Aashit K. Shah, M.D. was appointed as the Section Chief of Neurology in the Department of Medicine at Virginia Tech Carilion Clinic . Dr. Shah is a nationally recognized leader in neurology and clinical neurophysiology, research, and education. He comes to Carilion with a strong history of leadership, and having garnered many honors and awards.
Dr. Shah recently served as the Interim Chair of Neurology for Wayne State University School of Medicine. He serves as the Specialist-in-Chief of Neurology at Detroit Medical Center and directs their Level 4 Comprehensive Epilepsy Center.
He previously has held numerous positions including the Program Director for the Neurology Residency and Clinical Neurophysiology Fellowship and Associate Chair of Neurology at Wayne State University/Detroit Medical Center.
Dr. Shah’s main clinical interest is epilepsy management and treatment, including surgical treatment of epilepsy, EEG monitoring in the ICU and intracranial EEG monitoring, and management of epilepsy through the life cycle including during pregnancy and in the elderly. He joins Carilion at a pivotal time in the growth of our neuroscience clinical care endeavors, epilepsy medical and surgical programs, and research. Dr. Shah is involved in the Epilepsy Foundation of Michigan, the ROW Foundation, and is Chair of the Clinical Practice Workgroup for the American Epilepsy Society.
Dr. Shah has recently joined the Editorial team of Epilepsia, the most widely read journal in epilepsy. His scholarly contributions include medical editor and reviewer for numerous journals such as eMedicine for WebMD, Neurology, Journal of Neurological Sciences, Clinical Neurophysiology, Neurocritical Care, World Neurosurgery, Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry, and the Journal of Clinical Neurophysiology. Dr. Shah is a Fellow of the American Academy of Neurology and the American Neurological Association. He is a recipient of the Wayne State University School of Medicine Teaching Award and has been voted a “Best Doctor in America” numerous times. Dr. Shah is actively involved in clinical trials, grants, and contracts at both national and international levels. He has published over 165 abstracts and has contributed to 92 peer-reviewed publications, review articles, book chapters, letters to the editor, and case reports. He is a much sought after speaker internationally and has maintained a busy national presence in CME education.
Dr. Shah received his medical degree from Municipal Medical College, Gujarat University in Ahmedabad, India. He completed his internship in internal medicine at Interfaith Medical Center in Brooklyn, NY and his residency in Neurology followed by a fellowship in Clinical Neurophysiology at Wayne State University in Detroit, MI.
Please join me in congratulating Dr. Shah in his new role.
Dear colleagues:
The 35th annual meeting of the Association of Indian Neurologists in America (AINA), held in Los Angeles, was a great success. There was record-high attendance and it was very gratifying to see residents and fellows attend, as well as many other first-time attendees. Please take some time to check out the photo album collected at the Annual Meeting. Any photos, please send along to the AINA Office, and we will add as well!
At the meeting, we were treated to excellent presentations on the future of neurology and new advances in the treatment of Parkinson’s disease. AINA was able to celebrate the outstanding achievements of members of our community and bestow its annual Lifetime Achievement award.
On behalf of the Executive Committee, I encourage you to become involved in new AINA initiatives. I look forward to seeing you at upcoming AINA events.
-Seemant Chaturvedi, MD, FAAN
AINA President
The 2018 AINA Tarang Newsletter is now available! Please click here to view. This Newsletter maintains a summary of the prior year's events, awards, recognitions, and activities to report about neurologists of Indian origin.
The Tarang complements our website and monthly update emails in order to provide information about our organization, medical and professional topics, and upcoming professional meetings of interest to our readers.
At the AINA, we have started an initiative where we will be recording audio podcasts from faculty members and leaders in the field to educate and inspire the residents, fellows and the members.
The second podcast of the series includes Dr. Aneesh Singhal from MGH and Dr. Jeyaraj Pandian from Ludhiana about the Indo-US stroke project.
Please listen into the live podcast here, or read along the script by clicking here.
Dr. Aneesh B. Singhal is a vascular neurologist at Massachusetts General Hospital. He is past President of the Association of Indian Neurologists in America, International Advisor to the Indian Stroke Association, and Advisor to Partners International.
Dr. Jeyaraj Pandian is the head of the Department of Neurology at Christian Medical College in Ludhiana, India. He is involved with several national and international collaborative research efforts to illuminate the epidemiology and underlying mechanisms of stroke in India.
