Sean Isaac Savitz MD

Dr. Sean I. Savitz, MD is a Professor of Neurology and Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, the Frank M. Yatsu Chair, and Director of the Institute for Stroke and Cerebrovascular Disease at the University of Texas Health Science Center in Houston (UTHealth). He graduated from Harvard College, received his MD from Albert Einstein College of Medicine, and completed neurology residency training and a cerebrovascular fellowship at the Harvard Medical School Neurology Training Program. With over 50 participating faculty, the UTHealth Stroke Institute’s mission is to advance and transform stroke prevention, treatment, and rehabilitation in the dual contexts of community population health and a learning healthcare system. Dr. Savitz’s research focuses on stroke recovery, rehabilitation, and the application of stem cells as an innovative treatment for stroke. He also oversees an NIH-funded fellowship program to train stroke specialists and has won several teaching awards in Boston and Houston. He has been funded by grants from the National Institute of Health, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, and the American Heart Association, and is an author of over 275 publications in the biomedical literature. From 2017 to 2021, he served as the inaugural medical director for the integrated stroke program involving 11 hospitals in the Memorial Hermann Health System in Houston, which provides care to over 4,000 patients per year with cerebrovascular disease. He presently chairs the stroke committee of the SouthEast Texas Regional Advisory Council (SETRA), which establishes standards of care and best practices based on consensus among all health systems and EMS agencies in Southeast Texas.