Jason Jonathon Sico, MD, MHS, FAHA, FAAN (Neurology), FANA, FACP

Jason Sico, MD, MHS, is a neurologist and internal medicine physician who sees patients at the VA Medical Center in West Haven, where he specializes in headache and stroke care.

Dr. Sico says he knew he wanted to be a physician since he was 4. “I feel blessed every day that I am in a service-oriented profession. I learn so much from being in health care and working one-on-one with patients,” he says. “When you learn about each patient and how you can best help them, they open up. They aren’t a symptom or a list of medications or a past medical history. They are a living, breathing, wonderful person, and it’s my goal to make sure they have a vibrant life and are as healthy as possible.”

Reaching that goal, Dr. Sico says, is finding ways to prevent illness and understanding the concerns that brought the patient to see him. One of the best parts of his job, he adds, is his dual training as a neurologist and internist. “I did this to be able to look at neurologic diseases that are common in primary care. There aren’t enough neurologists in the country, which is expected to get worse as the population continues to age and we see more diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s,” he says.

Dr. Sico also helped establish a national telestroke program across the Veterans Health Administration.

“We service over 70 different hospitals. If a veteran is suspected of having a stroke, they'll start off with an evaluation,” he explains. “They'll give someone like me a call, and then we'll get on the iPad and talk to them through a telehealth application. Plus, we outfit all the medical centers with the equipment that they need to do things at their end. We figure out what steps they need to take very quickly because for acute stroke care, the sooner we can decide someone is having a stroke and offer them clot-busting medication or other therapies, the better.”

For stroke research, Dr. Sico is interested in secondary prevention. “Once someone has had a transient ischemic attack, or TIA, we want to know if we can identify what contributed to their stroke in the first place. What we need to do to meet their evolved needs and how could we prevent another stroke,” he says. “My research also includes entire healthcare system interventions to help improve care transitions as people go back into the community and in a way that improves communication and collaboration between the specialists who took care of them in the hospital and their primary care providers who give them longitudinal care for issues like high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and other issues.”

Other research pursuits include addressing post-stroke sleep apnea, which is common, and working with headache disorders, including using cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) for headache and migraine disease.