Veronica Santini, MD, MA, associate professor of neurology, clinical chief of Yale’s Movement Disorders Division, and chief of the Comprehensive Parkinson Disease Care Program, specializes in the clinical and multidisciplinary care of the most complex patients with autonomic dysfunction.
Prior to joining Yale School of Medicine, she directed Stanford’s Huntington Disease and Ataxia Multidisciplinary Neurogenetics Clinic, a Huntington’s Disease Society of America Center of Excellence, where she oversaw a large team of specialists providing holistic, patient-centered care and similarly created other multispecialty integrated programs. To provide movement disorder patients with innovative therapies, Dr. Santini launched the Stanford Parkinson Disease Duopa Therapy program; delivered unified, seamless care for patients with multiple system atrophy (MSA); led the clinical trial investigation (and eventual FDA approval) for focused ultrasound thalamotomy for essential tremor; as well as therapeutic and neuroprotective trials for Parkinson’s disease, MSA, and Huntington’s disease.
With this distinguished background, Dr. Santini was recruited to serve as the clinical chief of the Yale Movement Disorders Division and inaugural director of the Comprehensive Parkinson Disease Care Program. She leads the division to further optimize the human experience of those with movement disorders. In this role, Dr. Santini has built new methods of diagnostic evaluations, multidisciplinary care models, a longitudinal supportive care program (the “EmPOWERed with Parkinson” program), and developed community outreach strategies. She is simultaneously growing the faculty with diverse expertise, expanding training opportunities and the size of the movement disorders fellowship, and seamlessly integrating clinical research opportunities that impact quality of life. Since her arrival at Yale, the Movement Disorders Division has gained recognition as a world-class movement disorders center and is designated as a Mission MSA Center of Excellence and an American Parkinson Disease Association Center for Advanced Parkinson Research. The Movement Disorders Division has also been recognized as a Center of Excellence by Alpha Omega Alpha and a Parkinson’s Foundation Hospital Care Learning Collaborative.
As an experienced medical educator, Dr. Santini has broadly addressed the needs of adult learners (including students, residents, fellows, and expert learners) and created novel andragogical approaches with wide dissemination within and outside the field of neurology. She taught all disciplines to medical students from their first to their graduating years and has been an influential educator for neurology residents and fellows. During her tenure as director of the Required Neurology Clerkship at Stanford, the course was ranked first in the Stanford School of Medicine and approximately 20% above national averages.
Her national efforts have focused on increasing student understanding of neurologic disease and increasing the medical student pipeline into neurology. For the expert learner, Dr. Santini chaired the Continuing Medical Education (CME) Committee and guided programming as a member of the Congress Scientific Programming Committee of the International Parkinson and Movement Disorder Society (MDS). As chair of the MDS CME Committee, she ensured compliance with the highest ACCME standards and expanded programming to over 40 CME activity offerings yearly with more than 150 credit hours. She oversaw two reaccreditations for the MDS, culminating in the ACCME’s designation of “Accreditation with Commendation.” As a result of this work, the society awarded her with the International 2023 President’s Distinguished Service Award. She has also served the American Academy of Neurology (AAN) educational needs on the Education Committee and the Meeting Management Committee. 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.
Driven by a commitment to social justice and the desire to provide equitable health care, Dr. Santini has a long record of combining her clinical and educational efforts to launch global neurologic programs. She created and implemented a longitudinal, team-based clinical and educational program to provide care to the impoverished nation of Haiti. This program has delivered increased access for neurologic patients 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 and has 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 and was a significant addition to the training programs at Stanford and Yale. 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. She now serves as chair of the AAN’s Early Career Leadership Subcommittee, member of the Leadership Development Committee, and focuses on strategic development within the AAN Health Equity Strategic Initiative Work Group.
