About me
Paola Pergami, MD, PhD, is a Pediatric Neurologist at MedStar Georgetown University Hospital. She also serves as an Associate Professor within the Georgetown University School of Medicine. Dr. Pergami has a background in neuroscience, specific training in pediatric neurology, and an interest and expertise in pediatric stroke and rehabilitation. She obtained her MD form the University of Pavia, Italy, and her PhD from the University of Milan, Italy. She completed her Pediatric Neurology Fellowship at UPMC, in Pittsburgh. Complementing her clinical work in pediatric stroke, Dr. Pergami has extensively collaborated with the International Pediatric Stroke Study (IPSS). Within that group, she has contributed to the development of many important studies including studies on seizures in pediatric stroke (SIPS, SIPSII) the role of inflammation in pediatric stroke (VIPS, VIPSII), and investigating potential use of mechanical clot removal in children with stroke. Her clinical expertise and interests focus on acute stroke intervention, neuroimaging, and mechanism of brain plasticity in stroke recovery. Dr. Pergami is the author of over 150 original, peer-reviewed research articles and presentations.
Clinical areas of focus
- Epilepsy
- Headache
- Hemiparesis
- Ischemic Stroke
- Spasticity
Conditions and procedures
Procedures I perform
- Botox For Dystonia
- Botox For Spasticity
- Botox Injection
- Brain Injury Rehabilitation
- Epilepsy Monitoring Unit Evaluation (EMU)
- Headache Therapy
Insurance
MedStar Health accepts most major health insurance plans. If you are uncertain as to whether your individual health insurance plan is accepted at MedStar Health, please call your insurance company.
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List of insurance plans we accept
- United Healthcare Options (PPO) (includes Empire PPO, GEHA, Compass Rose)
- Blue Choice Advantage & Healthy Blue (HMO, POS)
- UnitedHealthcare and AARP Medicare Complete Plans/ UHC Group Medicare Advantage Plans HMO, POS, PPO
- Kaiser Permanente Medicare Advantage Signature and Select (aka Senior Advantage)
- UnitedHealthcare Medicare Adv/Special Needs Plans
- UHC Community Plan of MD
- Private Health Care Systems (PHCS) (PPO)
- Medicare Fee for Service
- Kaiser Virginia Premier
- Kaiser PermanenteSelect-Added Choice
- Kaiser Permanente Signature-Added Choice
- Kaiser Permanente Signature
- Kaiser Permanente Select
- Kaiser Permanente Medicare Plus (Medicare Supplemental Plan)
- Kaiser Permanente Flexible Choice POS
- Kaiser MD Medicaid MCO
- CFBCBS Federal Employee Program (Std/Basic PPO/Blue Focus)
- CFBCBS EPO
- Aetna Innovations: HMO & EPO Plus
- Select HMO/HealthFund/Health Network
- Aetna HMO
- Open POS II
- Innovation Health: Open POS Plus
- Choice POS & Choice POS II
- Aetna Managed Choice Open Access (POS)
- Open EPO Plus
- Opoen HMO Option
- Open HMO
- Innovation Health: POS
- Aetna HMO-Open Access/Select OA/HealthFund/Health Network Option OA
- Innovation Health: Open Network Only Plus
- Aetna Elect Choice/ Open Access (POS)
- Innovation Health: POS Plus
- Aetna Managed Choice (POS)
- Innovation Health: PPO
- Aetna Open Choice (PPO)
- Innovation Health: Indemnity
- Aetna Traditional Choice (PPO)
- BlueChoice Open Access
- CFBCBS Blue Choice Opt Out Open Access
- HealthyBlue PPO
- CFBSBC Blue Preferred PPO
- Choice Fund PPO
- PPO and PPO Plus
- CIGNA EPO
- POS OA & OA Plus
- Network OA
- CIGNA HMO Open Access (OA)
- United Healthcare Choice
- Coventry Health Care National Network PPO
- Aetna Worker's Compensation Network
- Mamsi Life & Health (Indem./PPO)
- Optimum Choice Preferred (POS) & OCI Direct (HMO)
- M.D. IPA Preferred (POS)
- M.D. IPA (HMO)
- United Student Resources
- United Healthcare Choice Plus
- United Healthcare Select Plus (POS)
- United Healthcare Select HMO - EPO/NPP
- MedStar Select (MedStar Associates' Plan)
- MedStar Family Choice - Maryland Health Choice
- Tricare for Life (Medicare Supplemental Plan)
- Tricare Prime
- FIRST HEALTH
- First Health PPO
- Coventry of Delaware HMO/PPO
- Coventry Health Care of Virginia
- CIGNA Indemnity
- Great-West Healthcare POS/CIGNA
- CIGNA POS/Network POS
- CIGNA HMO & Network (HMO)
- CFBCBS (NCA) Indemnity
- CFBCBS Maryland Indemnity or PPO
- CFBCBS Maryland Point of Service Plan (MPOS)
- CFBCBS Blue Choice Opt Out Plus Open Access (POS)
- CFBCBS BlueChoice HMO
- Aetna Medicare Advantage HMO & PPO Plans
- Aetna Student Health Insurance
- Aetna Quality Point of Service (POS)
- Aetna Elect Choice/ EPO (Aetna Health Fund) Innovation Health: Network Only Plus
Education
Fellowship: Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh (2008)
Residency: West Virginia University School of Medicine (2007)
Residency: West Virginia University Hospitals (2004)
Graduate: Universita di Pisa (1993)
Graduate: Universita di Pisa (1989)
Medical School: Universita Degli Studi di Pavia School of Medicine (1989)
Hospital affiliations
News and publications
- Jordan LC, Hills NK, Fox CK, Ichord RN, Pergami P, deVeber GA, Fullerton HJ, Lo W. Socioeconomic determinants of outcome after childhood arterial ischemic stroke. Neurology. 2018 Aug 7;91(6):e509-e516. Epub 2018 Jul 6.
- J. L Wilson, P. Pergami. Practice and Preparedness for Endovascular Therapy in Acute Pediatric Stroke. Stroke. 2018;49:A197
- P. R. Tabrizi, M. Peries, R. Monfaredi, H.F. Talari, T. Salvador, K. Cleary, P. Pergami. Use of PedBot Robotic Rehabilitation: Neurophysiologic Measures of Motor Training in a Pediatric Population. Neurorehabilitation and Neural Repair, Vol. 32(3), pp. 258-9, 2018
- Wintermark M, Hills NK, DeVeber GA, Barkovich AJ, Bernard TJ, Friedman NR, Mackay MT, Kirton A, Zhu G, Leiva-Salinas C, Hou Q, Fullerton HJ; VIPS Investigators. Clinical and Imaging Characteristics of Arteriopathy Subtypes in Children with Arterial Ischemic Stroke: Results of the VIPS Study. AJNR Am J Neuroradiol. 2017 Nov;38(11):2172-2179.
- Kesar TM, Belagaje SR, Pergami P, Haut MW, Hobbs G, Buetefisch CM. Effects of monoaminergic drugs on training-induced motor cortex plasticity in older adults. Brain Res. 2017 Sep 1.
- Fox CK, Mackay MT, Dowling MM, Pergami P, Titomanlio L, Deveber G; SIPS Investigators. Prolonged or recurrent acute seizures after pediatric arterial ischemic stroke are associated with increasing epilepsy risk. Dev Med Child Neurol. 2017 Jan;59(1):38-44.
- P. Pergami, W. Chen, K. Guffey, G. Guo. Classification of Normal and Abnormal Gait in Young Children Based on Foot Pressure Data: Towards Remote Monitoring of Medical Interventions. Neuroinformatics, 2017; Jan;15(1):13-24.
- Fullerton HJ, deVeber GA, Hills NK, Dowling MM, Fox CK, Mackay MT, Kirton A, Yager JY, Bernard TJ, Hod EA, Wintermark M, Elkind MS; VIPS Investigators. Inflammatory Biomarkers in Childhood Arterial Ischemic Stroke: Correlates of Stroke Cause and Recurrence. Stroke. 2016 Sep;47(9):2221Stroke. 2016 May;47(5):1265-70. PMID: 27491741
- Fullerton HJ, Wintermark M, Hills NK, Dowling MM, Tan M, Rafay MF, Elkind MS, Barkovich AJ, deVeber GA; VIPS Investigators. Risk of Recurrent Arterial Ischemic Stroke in Childhood: A Prospective International Study. Stroke. 2016 Jan;47(1):53-9.
- Wintermark M, Hills NK, deVeber GA, Barkovich AJ, Elkind MS, Sear K, Zhu G, Leiva-Salinas C, Hou Q, Dowling MM, Bernard TJ, Friedman NR, Ichord RN, Fullerton HJ; VIPS Investigators. Arteriopathy diagnosis in childhood arterial ischemic stroke: results of the vascular effects of infection in pediatric stroke study. Stroke. 2014 Dec;45(12):3597-605. PMID: 25388419.
- Motiian S, Pergami P, Guffey K, Mancinelli CA, Doretto G. Automated extraction and validation of children's gait parameters with the Kinect. Biomed Eng Online. 2015 Dec 2;14(1):112. PMID: 26626555.
- Guffey K, Regier M, Mancinelli C, Pergami P(*). Gait parameters associated with balance in healthy 2- to 4-year-old children. Gait Posture. 2016 Jan;43:165-9. PMID: 26439183.
- M. Ly, T. Nanavati, Frum, P. Pergami(*). Comparing tract-based spatial statistics and manual region-of-interest labeling as diffusion analysis methods to detect white matter abnormalities in infants with hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy. J Magn Reson Imaging. 2015 Apr 24. doi: 10.1002/jmri.24930. PMID: 25914196.
- P. Pergami(*), N Seemaladinne, A.B. Billing. Validating the Use of a Computer Application as Test of Motor Function in Children and Adults. NeuroRehabilitation, 2013 (1-9).