Congrats to the following AINA Members on being elected for AAN Section Chairs!

Sayonna John, MD - Chair of Critical Care and Emergency Neurology Section
Rajneesh Kiran, MD - Chair of Pain Section
Aarti Sarwal, MD - Vice Chair of Critical Care and Emergency Neurology Section
Deepak Gulati, MD - Vice Chair of Stroke Section
Sonika Agarwal, MD - Vice Chair of Child Neurology Section

Congratulations Dr. Geetanjali Rathore for being selected as one of Castle Connolly's Exceptional Women in Medicine for 2023!  Castle Connolly's Exceptional Women in Medicine as a special recognition based on the outstanding accomplishments and dedication to the field of medicine, recognizing women who contribute to the advancement of healthcare through clinical care, research, community services, education and leadership. 

A new global study shows that greater use of interventional procedures to remove large brain blood clots causing stroke paralysis could potentially benefit millions of patients a year, according to Dileep R. Yavagal, M.D., professor of clinical neurology and neurosurgery at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine.

Read More

The Indian Committee of Treatment and Research in Multiple Sclerosis (ICTRIMS) will be happening after a gap of four years, due to COVID-19 pandemic, from 18th to 20th August 2023 at New Delhi, India under the aegis of the Autoimmune Subsection of Indian Academy of Neurology (IAN). It is being hosted collectively by ‘Sattvum Health’ and ‘People for People with MS Foundation’.

These last four years have witnessed substantial progress in the understanding of the basic and the clinical science related to Multiple Sclerosis (MS) and other Central Nervous System (CNS) demyelinating disorders including NMOSD/MOGAD in addition to introduction of many new and emerging drugs for these disorders based upon the novel disease-specific pathophysiological mechanisms. At the ICTRIMS Delhi 2023, we intend to share this up-to-date knowledge about the pathophysiology, biomarkers, neuroimaging, and treatment and monitoring tools for MS and other CNS demyelinating disorders. The conference is spread over two and a half days, starting 18th August 2023 morning with MS school/workshops and concluding by 20th August 2023 lunch.

European Charcot Foundation (ECF) has gladly agreed to be a scientific partner to the event.

If you are interested in participating in this meeting or collaborating with ICTIRMS please email Dr. Aarti Sarwal at asarwal@wakehealth.edu.

Eva Mistry, MBBS, MSCI, FAHA received the Robert G. Siekert New Investigator Award in Stroke from the International Stroke Conference.  The Award is in recognition of Dr. Robert G. Siekert, founding chairman of the American Heart Association’s International Conference on Stroke and Cerebral Circulation, this award encourages new investigators to undertake or continue stroke-related research.  Congratulations to Dr. Pooja Khatri for their mentorship!

Read more here.

Sandra Narayanan, MD, was elected as a Fellow of the American Academy of Neurology (FAAN) in 2022.

She joined the Pacific Neuroscience Institute in August 2022 and serves as the Director of the Neurointerventional Program & Co-Director of the Comprehensive Stroke Program for Providence Saint Joseph Medical Center in Burbank, California.

• Dr. Sonika Agarwal is the founder of the Fetal Neurology Consortium (as an initiative led under AAN Transforming Leadership Program 2021) that presently represents eight  fetal-neonatal neurologists involved with programs at maternal-pediatric medical centers associated with academic institutions across the US for collaborations for educational and academic scholarships. The collaborative work of the Fetal Neurology Consortium also launched the Child Neurology Society Special Interest Group at the CNS Annual meeting 2022 at Cincinnati, OH in October 2022.
• Dr. Agarwal also organized the Breakfast Seminar on Fetal Neurology: advances and future landscape- as part of the initiative under the Fetal Neurology Consortium and Child Neurology Society meeting 2022, Cincinnati, OH.
• Steering Committee Member to the Global Pregnancy Collaborative (CoLab), an international professional organization that explores improved global maternal care and adverse conditions confronted by the maternal/placental/fetal triad.
• Adjunct Member on Global Research on Developmental Disabilities Collaborators (GRDDC), a foremost culturally-diverse partnership for data driven optimal early childhood development.

• Posters:
• Tomo Tarui, Charu Venkatesan, Dawn Gano, Monica Lemmon, Sarah B. Mulkey, Andrea Pardo, Lisa Emrick, Mark Scher, Sonika Agarwal: Fetal Neurology Practice Survey. 14th International Newborn Brain Conference (INBBC) 2023 Page: Poster, February 2023.
• Renee DiCicco, Natalie Burrill, Haley Crane, Nahla Khalek, Juliana Gebb, Sonika Agarwal, Matthew Whitehead, Deborah Zarnow, Edward Oliver, Ashley Bach, Julie Moldenhauer: Two Cases of Prenatally Diagnosed Cri-du-Chat Syndrome and Associated MRI Findings. ACMG Annual Clinical Genetics Meeting 2023 March 2023.
• Virali Patel, Tomo Tarui, Charulata Venkatesan, Sonika Agarwal: Prenatal Neurologic Diagnosis: Challenges in Neuroimaging, Prognostic Counseling, and Prediction of Neurodevelopmental Outcomes. Child Neurology Society Annual Meeting 2022 October 2022

Congratulations Dr. Sunil Sheth, MD on co-authoring the paper "Vessel Occlusion Stroke: A Guideline From the Society of Vascular and Interventional Neurology Guidelines and Practice Standards Committee"

Read the paper here. 

Congratulations Dr. Aggarwal on the publication of your book along with Dr. Louis Caplan! 

Dear AINA Members,

A central goal of the Executive Board has been to provide value to AINA membership by engaging the members within this organization. Given this goal, the Executive Board has developed several committees tasked with the development of “New Initiatives” for the organization that we hope will promote the goals of AINA both nationally and internationally. We are excited to share these “New Initiatives” with AINA and want to recruit motivated members to join these committees (5 members per committee). The committees and their brief descriptions are listed below:

Education Committee (Committee Chair: Geetanjali Rathore, grathore@childrensomaha.org)—to promote educational opportunities for attending physicians and trainees both within the US and in India

Volunteer Committee (Committee Chair: Shubhi Agrawal sagraw@ucdavis.edu)—to create clinical volunteering opportunities through collaboration between US and Indian medical centers

Research Committee (Committee Chair: Rajeev Garg, rajeev_garg@rush.edu)—to develop research initiatives that advance neurologic care for Indians and Indians Americans.

Advocacy Committee (Committee Chair: Atul Kalanuria, atul.kalanuria@pennmedicine.upenn.edu)—to foster greater communication and collaboration amongst members of AINA

If you are interested in joining any of these committees, please submit the following by clicking this link: AINA New Initiatives 

1) Name

2) Committee of interest

3) Personal Statement (maximum 300 words)

4) Curriculum Vitae

If there are any questions, please feel free to contact the chairs for the committee you may be interested. All material will be due by January 9, 2023. Selected committee participants will be notified by email within 1-2 months.

We look forward to working with you to build a stronger AINA and hope you will consider joining.

Sincerely,

AINA Executive Board