Stroke and the Division of Vascular Neurology

The Division of Vascular Neurology evaluates, treats and studies diseases which affect the structure and function of the blood vessels supplying the brain. The academic mission is two-fold: (1) to represent the principal educators of cerebrovascular disease for the Yale School of Medicine, the Yale Neurology Residency Program, and practitioners throughout New England; and (2) to investigate novel translational approaches to more effective acute stroke treatments, better secondary stroke prevention strategies and to improve stroke recovery and rehabilitation.

Vascular Neurologists hold teaching appointments at the Yale University School of Medicine and are clinical faculty within Yale Medical Group. They provide outpatient consultations in a multidisciplinary setting at the Yale Physician's Building or at the VAMC in West Haven, CT. Consultative services are also provided at Gaylord Hospital, one of the major rehabilitation hospitals in Connecticut. Yale conducts numerous acute and secondary stroke prevention clinical research trials including those sponsored by industry and the National Institutes of Health.

The stroke program was certified as a Primary Stroke Center by the Joint Commission in 2005 and by the Connecticut Department of Public Health in 2008. Its mission is to provide safe, effective, patient-centered, timely efficient and equitable care to patients with cerebrovascular disease at Yale-New Haven Hospital. The Stroke Center serves as a primary referral center for acute stroke management and has multidisciplinary outpatient stroke clinics for secondary stroke prevention and stroke recovery.

Joseph Schindler, MD serves as the Clinical Director of the Yale-New Haven Stroke Center and leads the acute stroke team activities. The hospital's resident-staffed acute stroke team is available 24/7 and in collaboration with clinical staff from neurosurgery, neuroradiology and emergency medicine, provide acute stroke consultation, treatment and cutting-edge interventional treatment aided by state-of-the-art imaging.

Yale-New Haven Hospital is the only hospital in Connecticut to offer acute vascular neurology consultation through the Yale-New Haven Telestroke Network. Now in its fourth year of operation, the Network allows a team of neurologists to provide 24/7 telemedicine coverage to two outlying hospitals in Connecticut and work in collaboration with the clinical staff in the Emergency Department to evaluate and treat patients presenting with acute neurological emergencies. These patients are also offered the opportunity to be transferred to Yale-New Haven Hospital for Neuro-interventional procedures, monitoring in the Neuro-Intensive Care Unit and enrollment in clinical trials.

Faculty

• Joseph L. Schindler, MD, Acting Division Chief, Assistant Professor of Neurology
• David Greer, MD, MA, Professor of Neurology

Staff

Janet Halliday, RN, Research Coordinator
Susan Kekacs, Operations Manager
Karin V. Nystrom, APRN, Clinical Coordinator

Inquiries

Please make inquiries related to the Division of Vascular Neurology or the Yale-New Haven Stroke Center to: