When a stroke patient reaches the hospital, the healthcare team must act quickly to stabilize, diagnose and initiate treatment to mitigate further complications.
Haley Basinger, MD, MS, was drawn to this high-stakes, fast-paced environment while working with the stroke team at IU Health Methodist Hospital during her second year of adult neurology residency training at the Indiana University School of Medicine.
"I loved the acuity of stroke — getting to run to stroke codes and urgently managing patients and deciding on potentially life-saving treatments," Basinger said. "I enjoyed the investigation part of figuring out what caused the stroke and the overall long-term management to determine how we prevent another stroke from happening.
"I also found it very rewarding to be a part of the follow-up with patients — checking on their progress while they’re in the hospital and then staying connected with them and their families during recovery."
After graduating from the residency program in 2025, Basinger has further pursued her passion for treating patients who experience stroke and other neurovascular disorders as the Department of Neurology’s vascular fellow.
The vascular fellowship is a one-year program that provides advanced training in the contemporary care of all vascular neurological conditions, including ischemic and hemorrhagic stroke.
After several decades of closure, the fellowship re-opened in 2024. Basinger is the second fellow of the revamped program, following in the footsteps of 2025 graduate Shaney Peña, MD, now an assistant professor of clinical neurology at Indiana University.
In addition to vascular neurology, the Department of Neurology offers fellowships in clinical neurophysiology, behavioral neurology and neuropsychiatry, neuro-ophthalmology, neuroimmunology and movement disorders. Fellows experience an in-depth training environment in clinical care and research alongside faculty experts in their specialties for each of the fellowships.
"The program offers flexibility so that fellows can develop and find their niche," said vascular fellowship director Ann Jones, MD. "Even though vascular neurology is specialized, you can specialize even further into a niche or if there’s some place you want to take your training and research, you can go and do it.
"Sometimes with other vascular neurology fellowships, you’re a real workhorse and you can definitely learn a lot during that time, but it often comes at a cost. We provide our fellows with a more nurturing atmosphere made up of collaborative faculty experts who will encourage and help push them in the direction they want to go."
Jones, assistant clinical professor of neurology, said the IU School of Medicine’s long-standing excellence in vascular neurology will continue to grow as the fellowship expands to two positions in 2026.
"To me, the more learners you have, the better the academic setting, the more opportunities there are for growth and learning," Jones said. "I know when I was a fellow, having another fellow to talk to and run ideas past was very valuable."
The fellowship expansion will also open more research opportunities, Jones said, as fellows can help recruit more patients to participate in clinical trials of various diseases including stroke.
"When I first started at IU, we didn’t have a single stroke study going and now we have five active clinical trials: PICASSO, DISCOVERY, Janssen LIBREXIA, VERIFY, and ASPIRE," Jones said. "We've been able to rapidly grow as we grow the fellowship. This allows us to play more of a role in the stroke community and have a positive impact on patient care."
Basinger has spent her vascular fellowship rotating through a variety of subspecialty and multidisciplinary clinics and services at Methodist Hospital, the IU Health Neuroscience Center and the Richard L. Roudebush Veterans’ Administration Medical Center.
In addition to being a part of the mobile stroke unit and telestroke program, she also manages a fellow continuity clinic.
"Once a week I have an outpatient clinic where I see stroke or other vascular neurology patients in the outpatient setting, dedicated to diagnosing and treating cerebrovascular diseases," Basinger said. "These are either hospital follow-ups or referred patients from elsewhere in the community that are in need of specialized vascular neurology care."
As a fellow, Basinger participates in research projects — she recently presented at the International Stroke Conference — and helps instruct neurology residents and medical students alongside faculty.
"Fellowship is a lot different than residency — you spend the first few months figuring out your role, your place and your style of practice while also studying for your neurology boards and getting going on quality improvement projects," Jones said. "It takes a lot of initiative, and it’s been great to see Haley grow and push herself. She has also done a wonderful job at mentoring and working with residents."
At the end of the fellowship year, it’s Jones’ hope that fellows feel confident pursuing their next step whether that remains in academics, in private practice or another realm of vascular neurology.
Basinger said she feels well prepared and eager to practice all she has learned at the IU School of Medicine.
"I will be taking care of stroke patients, mostly in the inpatient setting, applying all the vascular neurology training I have received here and incorporating it into a different hospital in Indianapolis that currently does not have any vascular neurology training," Basinger said. "I’m very excited to be able to bring in that expertise and hopefully improve stroke care."
