Victoria Di Castro Horn, DO

Dr. Di Castro Horn attended medical school in Philadelphia, graduating from Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine in 2026, after changing careers. She had previously earned a degree in Business Administration from John Cabot University in Rome, Italy in 2014, after which she worked in various sectors, including the public and Private spheres.

Dr Di Castro Horn's interest in medicine grew from a life shaped by international service, athletics, and rehabilitation. Early involvement with Non Profit organizations specializing in children with special needs began in elementary school through her family’s longstanding relationship with the field and has remained a continuous part of her life, including throughout medical school. Through this work, she has supported programs serving children and adults with neurologic and developmental disabilities in the United States and Italy.

In 2016, while working with the United Nations in Afghanistan, her experiences with humanitarian and medical needs in conflict-affected communities became a major catalyst for her decision to pursue medicine. She subsequently left a career in finance and business to return to school and become a physician due to her experience with limb-loss patients in Afghanistan.

Athletics have provided another defining thread throughout her life. Dr. Di Castro Horn represented Italy in international cricket, and later competed at the national level in Olympic weightlifting, winning an Italian national championship in 2019, and 3rd place in 2023. Her background as an athlete continues to inform both her approach to rehabilitation and her interest in helping patients preserve or regain the ability to participate fully in the activities that give their lives meaning.

Her research interests reflect the breadth of her clinical interests and have included photobiomodulation and emerging rehabilitation technologies, rehabilitation outcomes, and musculoskeletal injury. She is particularly interested in the intersection of evidence-based rehabilitation, procedural and regenerative approaches, and individualized strategies for restoring function and performance.

Outside the hospital, Dr. Di Castro Horn remains an enthusiastic athlete and outdoorswoman. She enjoys designing training programs for athletes, cycling (including long-distance rides across Connecticut and Italy), hiking and trekking, and exploring the relationship between exercise, nutrition, and lifestyle medicine. Her next trekking goal is the Monti Sibillini loop in Italy’s Marche region. When she is not training or planning her next outdoor adventure, she enjoys reading, cooking, traveling, and spending time with family and friends.

Her path to Yale has taken her from international humanitarian work and competitive sport to research and clinical medicine, but the underlying motivation has remained remarkably consistent: helping people retain or reclaim the ability to live active, independent, and meaningful lives. She hopes to build a career in rehabilitation medicine that brings together musculoskeletal and sports medicine, procedural care, and a deeply individualized understanding of what function means to each patient.