Veronica Santini, MD, distinguishes herself as able to manage the most complex patients with a particular specialization in the multidisciplinary care of Huntington disease and ataxia patients, and in autonomic dysfunction in movement disorders, including multiple system atrophy. Prior to joining the faculty at Yale, she directed the Stanford Multidisciplinary Huntington Disease and Genetic Ataxia Clinic, an HDSA Center of Excellence, where she oversaw a large and dedicated team of specialists providing truly holistic, patient-centered care. Under her leadership, the clinic received and maintained the prestigious designation as a Huntington Disease Society of America, Center of Excellence since 2015. With a similar multidisciplinary approach, Dr. Santini provided movement disorders patients with innovative therapies, such as initiation of the Stanford Parkinson Disease Duopa Therapy program, pursuit of unified, seamless care for patients with multiple system atrophy, clinical trial investigation (and eventual FDA approval) for focused ultrasound thalamotomy for essential tremor, and therapeutic and neuroprotective trials for PD, MSA, and HD. With this experience, Dr. Santini was recruited to the Yale Clinical Chief of the Movement Disorders Division and Inaugural Director of the Comprehensive Parkinson Disease Care Program.
Driven by social justice and providing equitable healthcare, Dr. Santini combines her clinical and educational efforts to launch global neurologic programs. She created a longitudinal, team-based clinical and educational program to provide care to the impoverish nation of Haiti through collaboration and funding from the American Academy of Neurology (AAN). This program has delivered increased access to care and continuity of care, as well as expansion of the clinical services and provider expertise since 2013. Education is a paramount component of the program focused on growing the knowledge of local providers and of medical students at the state university. This initiative began the first global health residency training program in Neurology at Boston University, now a training pathway with additional sites in China and India and was a substantial addition to the residency and fellowship programs at Stanford University. In recognition of her leadership and advocacy work, Dr. Santini was selected as a 2016 American Academy of Neurology (AAN) Emerging Leader and a 2015 AAN Palatucci Advocate, and now as Chair of the Early Career Leadership Subcommittee.
Additionally impassioned about medical education, Dr. Santini has extensive experience as a medical educator. At Stanford, she taught all disciplines to medical students from their first to their graduating years at Stanford, as an Educator 4 C.A.R.E., and as Director of the Required Neurology Clerkship. Dr. Santini has also been an influential educator for neurology residents and fellows and for the expert learner as the Chair of the Continuing Medical Education Committee and a member of the Congress Scientific Programming Committee of the International Parkinson and Movement Disorder Society, and a member of the Meeting Management Committee and the eLearning Subcommittee of the AAN. Her national efforts have focused on increasing student understanding of neurologic disease and increasing the medical student pipeline into neurology to fill gaps in neurologic patient care. Due to her efforts, she has won numerous teaching awards, including the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation Award for Excellence in Pre-Clinical Teaching, the Lawrence H. Mathers Award for Exceptional Commitment to Teaching and Active Involvement in Medical Education, the Stanford award for Excellence in Promotion of Humanism, and the Lysa Forno Excellence in Teaching award. With her transition to Yale, she hopes to transform the care of movement disorders patients, building new methods of diagnostic evaluations, multidisciplinary care models, and integrated programmatic community outreach, while growing the faculty in expertise and diversity, elevating the training of movement disorders fellows, continuing to train the next generation of physicians, and magnifying research opportunities that lead to disease modification and impact quality of life.
