Katherine Podraza MD, PhD

Dr. Katherine Podraza is a fellowship-trained, board-certified headache and facial pain specialist and neurologist practicing at the Hartford Healthcare Headache Center. She is also an Assistant Professor of Neurology at the University of Connecticut School of Medicine. She completed her MD, PhD training at Loyola University Chicago, her neurology residency at UCLA, and her headache medicine and facial pain fellowship at the UCLA Goldberg Migraine Program. Her practice is located at the Hartford Healthcare Headache Center in Mystic, Connecticut.

She specializes in the diagnosis and treatment of a variety of headache and facial pain disorders and uses her extensive training as a physician-scientist and headache neurologist to create unique and state-of-the-art treatment plans for her patients. As a migraine sufferer herself, she understands the impact headache disorders can have on personal quality of life, and her goal is not only to improve the quality of life for her patients but to bring awareness about migraine and other headache disorders as serious neurological diseases and an important public health issue. Understanding that headache disorders are complex and affect every part of her patients’ lives, she prioritizes getting to know her patients and creating a plan to control their headaches that is individualized. Some of these treatments include the use of specialized preventive treatments including Calcitonin Gene-Related Peptide (CGRP) targeted treatments, numerous oral preventative medication options, headache procedural interventions (including Botox, nerve blocks, and ultrasound-guided injections), and non-pharmacologic interventions including neuromodulation, as well as wellness and lifestyle interventions.

As a physician scientist, Dr. Podraza also hopes to improve the lives of her patients by contributing to the advancement of headache medicine through her academic research. Her research is focused on studying the utility of optical imaging in headache medicine. She has a special interest in the interface of visual disorders and headache medicine and has been studying changes in the eye during and between migraine attacks using specialized optical imaging (optical coherence tomography and angiography) that allows for the visualization of retinal layers and vasculature in the eye. In 2023, she was awarded for her breakthrough research with the Early Career Award at the 65th American Headache Society Annual Scientific Meeting. She has also previously received the Frontiers in Headache Research award in 2019.