When vascular neurologist Dr. Balaji Krishnaiah came to Memphis in 2017, only one or two medical students — out of local classes of 180 at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center College of Medicine — wanted to go into neurology. 

“If you look at the entire country, the percentage of medical students who choose neurology is 4% or less, and we call the Southern states, like Arkansas, Mississippi and Tennessee, a neurology desert,” said Krishnaiah, stroke medical director at Methodist Neuroscience Institute and neuroscience course director and neurology education vice chair at UTHSC’s College of Medicine. 

The Southeastern U.S. is the nation’s “Stroke Belt,” Krishnaiah said, an area with high stroke mortality. Memphis could be considered the buckle, with stroke being the city’s fifth leading cause of death.

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