Dhasakumar Navaratnam, MD, PhD
Cards
About
Titles
Professor of Neurology
Course Director Combined Neuroscience Course, CTW, Neuroscience, Neurology, Psychiatry, Ophthalmology; Attending Physician, Hearing and Balance Disorders Clinic, Surgery; Attending Physician, Yale New Haven Hospital Neurology Service, Neurology; Attending Physician, Yale New Haven Hospital Stroke Service, NeurologyBiography
Dhasakumar Navaratnam MD, PhD is a neurotologist and neurologist who provides advanced comprehensive evaluation and treatment for patients with hearing and balance problems. He received his MD from the University of Colombo and his PhD from the University of Oxford. He completed his residency in neurology and post-doctoral training in hearing research at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA. Dr. Navaratnam is funded by the NIH and performs basic science research on aspects of hearing and balance, and regeneration in the auditory and vestibular systems.
Appointments
Neurology
ProfessorPrimaryNeuroscience
Associate Professor on TermSecondary
Other Departments & Organizations
- Balance Problems
- Center for Biomedical Data Science
- Headache & Facial Pain Center
- Hearing & Balance Program
- Interdepartmental Neuroscience Program
- Navaratnam Lab
- Neurology
- Neuroscience
- Neuroscience Track
- Stroke
- Stroke Center
- Stroke Telemedicine Program
- Yale Combined Program in the Biological and Biomedical Sciences (BBS)
- Yale Medicine
- Yale Ventures
Education & Training
- Resident
- University of Pennsylvania (2001)
- Post Doctoral Fellow
- University of Pennsylvania (1997)
- PhD
- Oxford University (1991)
- MD
- University of Colombo (1986)
Research
Academic Achievements and Community Involvement
Clinical Care
Overview
Dhsakumar Navaratnam, MD, PhD, is a neurologist at Yale Medicine with a specialty in balance disorders and stroke.
Dr. Navaratnam pays close attention to each patient he meets. “There’s a lot you can tell just by the way someone walks,” he says. “It gives you a ton of information, just watching and seeing them come towards you, whether they’re holding onto a significant other for support, if they’re favoring one leg or another, or if they’re picking up their feet higher than normal.”
Once the patient has arrived in his office, Dr. Navaratnam uses that information in combination with the patient’s medical data to start a discussion about the patient’s medical history and his or her goals for the visit.
His hope is that his patients feel cared for. “Fundamentally, I want them to feel that when they come here, they’ve found somebody who wants to do what’s best for them,” he says.
In addition to seeing patients, Dr. Navaratnam works closely with the Yale Medicine Stroke Center to run clinical trials on the diagnosis and treatment of stroke using a new methodology called single-cell RNA sequencing. He also conducts research to better understand the cause of migraines.
Clinical Specialties
Fact Sheets
Dizziness
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