James C Grotta, MD

Dr Grotta’s research focuses on development of new therapies for acute stroke patients. He has been funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for laboratory studies on the biology of brain injury and recovery in animal stroke models. He has played a leadership role in many clinical research studies of both thrombolytic drugs and cytoprotective agents after stroke, including an NIH program project to carry out a series of novel pilot studies aimed at amplifying the existing benefits of intravenous TPA (Tissue Plasminogen Activator). Formerly chairman of Neurology at UT Medical School in Houston, and founder of its stroke clinical and training program, in 2014 he launched the nation’s first Mobile Stroke Unit, an ambulance equipped with a CT scanner and on-board expertise to carry out acute stroke diagnosis and treatment on-scene, thereby saving up to an hour of time. He is funded by the American Heart Association and the Patient Centered Research Institute to conduct a comparative effectiveness study of outcomes with Mobile Stroke Unit vs Standard Management.

Dr Grotta has authored more than 350 articles in peer-reviewed journals.
He was a recipient of the Feinberg Award for Excellence in Clinical Stroke (1999), Physician of the Year (2006), and the Eugene Braunwald Academic Mentorship Award (2010), all from the national chapter of the American Heart Association (AHA), and awards for teaching excellence at UT Medical School.