Congratulations to Charlene Ong for Receiving a K23 Award from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke

Charlene Ong, MD, MPHS, is an Assistant Professor of Neurology and Neurosurgery at Boston University, Visiting Assistant Professor at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a clinical Neurointensive Care Physician at Boston Medical Center. She received her undergraduate degree at University of Pennsylvania, her MD at Columbia University and her Master’s in Population Health Sciences at Washington University School of Medicine. Her research focuses on data-driven tools that support clinical decision making and optimize outcome after acute brain injury. She has received foundational support from the NIH in the form of a K23, the American Brain Foundation, Philips-MIT, the Peter-Paul Career Development Committee, and the Clinical and Translational Science Institute at Boston University. Her aim is to build a robust ICU data science program and follow a K-track path toward the eventual goal of becoming an independently funded researcher and recognized leader in the field of neurocritical care.

The CTSI provided Charlene with essential support during the first years of her faculty position to gather preliminary data and build up her research program. She has subsequently been the recipient of a K23 award from the NIH/NINDS for her project on Dynamic Risk Models of Life Threatening Mass Effect after Ischemic Stroke, in which she uses developing clinical data to update “dynamic” risk models and improve real-time risk assessment for patients who may go on to develop life threatening mass effect within the first week after stroke.