Sujani Bandela, MD

Dr. Bandela joined UT Health in San Antonio after completing her vascular neurology fellowship at UT Health in San Antonio. Prior to coming to UT Health, she was at Oregon Health and Science University in Portland, Oregon and was an administrative chief resident there. She joined as a vascular neurologist here and is an associate program director for the neurology residency at UT Health in San Antonio. She is also trained in post-stroke spasticity treatment and performs Botox for spasticity. She trained in performing Botox injections for migraines, dystonias, and bletharospasm/hemifacial spasms. She has two clinics established for the procedures including the UT Health Medical Arts and Research Center (MARC) and the University Hospital spasticity clinic. She sees a variety of patients including stroke hospital follow-ups, new stroke evaluations, spasticity evaluations, and migraine patients.

As an associate program director, Dr. Bandela works closely with the residents. She is heavily involved in resident didactics, including board review preparation and procedural training. She is leading a few residency tracks including the neurohospitalist track, which is an integrated track within the residency of providing residents adequate training to eventually become a neurohospitalist, and the procedural track. The procedural track provides clinical and simulation training for residents learning how to perform Botox procedures for a variety of neurological conditions. The track itself trains residents on ultrasound and electromyography use. She is working on a variety of educational projects with the residents.

Dr. Bandela is also involved in stroke and neurology advocacy. She has attended Neurology on the Hill through American Academy of Neurology (AAN) to advocate for a variety of neurological diseases to the Senate and House in Washington DC. She was selected to be a part of the prestigious Palatucci Advocacy Leadership Forum (PALF) through AAN. PALF selects only 30 people per year, and it is a one-year course of media training, close mentorship, and working on an advocacy project. Her project includes stroke advocacy in the South Texas Community that is underserved, and as UT Health caters to that patient population, the project provides closer care to stroke patients. Dr. Bandela is also a student at University of Texas San Antonio (UTSA) School of Business. She is part of national and state level committees and is an active member of the Texas Neurological Society (TNS) Education Committee. 

Dr. Bandela was also selected to speak at the AAN annual meeting on stroke access in low-resource settings and will be speaking in front of national and international neurology leaders. She has also been accepted to be a part of the International Stroke Conference to moderate a session on Tenecteplase as a choice clot-busting medication in stroke care. She is working on a variety of projects including a grant project comparing Alteplase (tPA) to Tenecteplase (tNK), some clinical trials that are looking more into secondary stroke prevention, and educational projects. The grant project is state funded through the Lone Star Stroke Consortium to compare tPA to tNK as tNK is being more readily accepted as a better clot busting medication for acute strokes. Dr. Bandela was selected for the Rising Star Award for Doctors in the San Antonio Area and was nominated for this award.