Kimberly Gannon, M.D., Ph.D, F.A.H.A

Medical Director of Comprehensive Stroke Program, Physician Executive of Neurosciences Service Line ChristianaCare

Newark DE

Dr. Gannon combines the expertise of clinician with doctorate research to improve both patient and population health in neurological care.

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Spotlight

Feb 17, 2025

3 min

ChristianaCare Brings Primary Care and Neurointerventional Care to Sussex County at New Milford Location

ChristianaCare is enhancing care options in Milford, Delaware, with the addition of two highly skilled physicians to better serve the community's growing health needs. Chinwe Ike-Chinwo, M.D., is a board-certified primary care physician with a special interest in preventive medicine. Thinesh Sivapatham, M.D., is a fellowship-trained neurointerventional surgeon and member of ChristianaCare's Neurointerventional Surgery team, specializing in minimally invasive techniques to treat conditions affecting the blood vessels of the head, neck and spine, including strokes and aneurysms. The practice is located at Halpern Plaza, 701 N. DuPont Blvd. To schedule an appointment, patients can call 302-725-3420. Convenient and Accessible Primary Care At the new ChristianaCare Primary Care at Milford practice, Ike-Chinwo is passionate about building long-term relationships with her patients, helping them achieve optimal health through personalized care. “I am excited to serve the Milford community and help individuals achieve their best health,” she said. “Through prevention, chronic disease management and wellness care, we aim to support our patients in leading healthier, more fulfilling lives.” Ike-Chinwo introduces herself in this video. The primary care practice offers a comprehensive range of services to adult patients, including sick visits, immunizations, physical exams, preventive screenings and treatment for both acute and chronic conditions and women’s health. The practice is open Monday through Friday, from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. In March 2025, the practice will welcome a second provider. In April 2025, the Milford site will also offer ChristianaCare’s My65+ program, which focuses on preventive care and chronic disease management for patients 65 and older. The providers at ChristianaCare’s new Milford location will play a crucial role in addressing the growing health care needs of Sussex County, which is experiencing rapid population growth, particularly among older adults. Sussex County has been designated as a Medically Underserved Area by the federal government, with projections showing that the population will increase from 237,378 in 2022 to over 361,000 by 2050, further intensifying the demand for primary care services. As the demand for primary and specialty care in Sussex County grows, especially among older adults, ChristianaCare is committed to meeting the health care needs of the community with personalized, patient-centered care. “Our mission is to make high-quality, compassionate care accessible to every resident of the communities we serve,” said Priya Dixit-Patel, M.D., physician executive for Core and Advanced Primary Care at ChristianaCare. “As primary care providers remain in short supply in many areas like Milford, we are focused on delivering care that can prevent disease, manage chronic conditions, and improve overall well-being, particularly for older adults.” Specialized Neurointerventional Consults Close to Home Sivapatham is excited to bring neurointerventional care to the Milford community and surrounding areas. “Neurointerventional Surgery is a highly specialized field that is often only found in larger metropolitan areas,” said Sivapatham, who speaks about treatment for stroke in this video. “I look forward to working closely with patients to ensure they receive the same high-quality care right here in Sussex County.” Kim Gannon, M.D., Ph.D., medical director of the Comprehensive Stroke Program and physician executive of the Neuroscience Service Line at ChristianaCare, highlighted the importance of improving access to physician consults for patients in Sussex County. “Providing neurointerventional care closer to home significantly improves access to specialized services for stroke patients who might otherwise need to travel to Newark,” said Gannon. “We want to ensure that patients receive the ongoing care and support essential for their recovery and long-term health at a location close to where they live.”

May 2, 2024

3 min

Innovative EEG Brain Monitoring Program Provides Optimal Care for Critically Ill Patients

ChristianaCare has launched an innovative electroencephalogram (EEG) brain monitoring program that represents a significant leap forward in the diagnosis and management of neurological conditions. The easy-to-use EEG program is the first of its kind that can be performed at the bedside to measure the electrical activity of the brain, providing a vital sign for brain function to help diagnose seizures more quickly. ChristianaCare is the first hospital system in Delaware to use the Ceribell point-of-care EEG monitoring system, which can reduce the time it takes to diagnose certain neurological conditions from hours to mere minutes. Using the system, clinicians have immediate access to EEG information so they can triage at-risk patients in just five minutes and monitor patients for treatment optimization. “With this new program, our team of expert clinicians will have the diagnostic information they need to provide high-risk patients with the right care at the right time, ensuring the best outcomes for our patients and their families,” said Kim Gannon, M.D., Ph.D., service line leader for Neurosciences at ChristianaCare. New technology detects ‘silent seizures’ Critically ill patients are at high risk of harmful brain electrical discharges called seizures. Some of these patients experience a type of “silent seizure” with no noticeable symptoms (non-convulsive) that can only be detected using EEG. If prolonged, non-convulsive seizures can lead to permanent brain injury and higher risk of morbidity and mortality. Demonstration of EEG device on patient at ChristianaCare Newark Campus. As a result, guidelines from the Neurocritical Care Society recommend EEG should be initiated within 15-60 minutes when these seizures are suspected. Meeting these guidelines has proven difficult due to the limitations of conventional EEG systems, which were not designed for use in emergency situations. Even top academic centers that have 24/7 EEG capabilities may experience wait times of four hours or more for conventional equipment. When relying on clinical judgement alone while waiting for these conventional EEG systems, diagnostic accuracy has been shown to be only slightly better than chance (65%). The value of this new technology for patients is that it provides accurate results quickly so that the care team can intervene early. “The neuroscience and critical care teams at ChristianaCare believe that ‘time is brain’ not only applies to stroke but also when dealing with seizure,” Gannon said. Gannon is referring to the fact that for every minute that passes when someone is having a stroke, 1.9 million brain cells are lost, increasing the chance of disability or death. That same kind of speed and urgency can now more easily be brought to bear for patients when a seizure is suspected. “This monitoring system is easy to use and can be set up in about five minutes,” said Richard Choi, D.O., medical director of the Neurocritical Care Unit at Christiana Hospital. “It consists of a simple headband, pocket-sized recorder with intuitive software and an on-line portal for remote viewing. Using the system, we can review EEG data, assess response to treatment and optimize care, all in real-time.” Neurosciences at ChristianaCare ChristianaCare’s multidisciplinary neurosciences team provides comprehensive and advanced care for neurologic illnesses across the acute and ambulatory settings. As the largest and most comprehensive neurology practice in Delaware with more than 55,000 patient visits last year, ambulatory subspecialties include stroke, epilepsy, multiple sclerosis, movement disorders, neuromuscular disorders, headaches/migraines, pediatric neurology and Botox specialists. The inpatient team of experts includes neurosurgeons, neurointerventional surgeons, neurocritical care physicians and vascular neurologists. The Newark Campus serves as the only comprehensive stroke center in the state and includes the only Epilepsy Monitoring Unit in Delaware.

Biography

Dr. Kimberly Gannon, an active vascular neurologist, oversees ChristianaCare's stroke program, one of the busiest stroke programs nationwide.

She combines the expertise of a clinician with doctorate research to improve both patient and population health in neurological care. Dr. Gannon oversees ChristianaCare’s inpatient neurology consultative service, neurocritical care, and neurointerventional surgical services. She is the recipient of numerous research recognition and scholarship awards, including induction into the Gold Humanism Honor Society.

Dr. Gannon has presented nationally and contributed to articles in peer-reviewed publications, including the American Journal of Physiology.

Areas of Expertise

Stroke Care

Vascular Neurology

Neurology

Physiology

Neurological Diseases

Education

University of Mississippi Medical Center

PhD

Physiology and Biophysics

University of Mississippi Medical Center

Physiology and Biophysics

Multimedia

Links and Image Galleries

Media Appearances

My doctor is back in the office. Is it safe to reschedule my appointment?

WHYY-PBS radio

2020-07-06

In April alone, the number of patients visiting ChristianaCare with stroke symptoms dropped by about 40%, said Kim Gannon, a vascular neurologist and director of the health care system’s stroke program.

“The good thing about stroke in 2020 is we have plenty of interventions. But we can only do these if the patient comes to the hospital really quickly after the symptoms start. We only have a couple hours to give some really strong clot-busting medication, and we really can’t reverse the damage that’s being done by the stroke if patients delay coming to the hospital,” she said. “Once they come in with an advanced condition, we can’t provide them any reversible therapy, the brain tissue has already died because of the stroke.”

Reopening Delaware - Dr. Kim Gannon warns against delaying stroke care

WDEL radio

2020-06-15

Reopening Delaware segments from The Rick Jensen Show - During the virus crisis, too many people have put off urgent care. Sometimes it's because hospitals were not allowing elective procedures and far too often it's because of fear or the virus. Dr. Kim Gannon warns against delaying going to ChristianaCare is you or someone you know may have had a stroke!

Selected Papers and Publications

Acquired Hemicerebral Atrophy Secondary to Chronic Internal Carotid Steno-Occlusive Disease: A Case Series

The Neurohospitalist

Jeffrey R. Vitt, MD, Ali G. Hamedani, MD, Sarah Horn, MD, Kimberly P. Gannon, MD, PhD, Raymond S. Price, MD, Maxwell Greene, MD

2019-06-30

Cerebral atrophy is a common finding in elderly patients; however, cerebrovascular disease causing progressive focal cerebral atrophy and dysfunction is unusual. In this report, we present 3 cases of hemicerebral atrophy due to ipsilateral internal carotid artery (ICA) stenosis or occlusion mimicking neurodegenerative conditions.

Noninvasive Optical Monitoring of Cerebral Blood Flow, Critical Closing Pressure, and Arteriole Compliance in Adult Human Subjects

Biophotonics Congress: Biomedical Optics Congress 2018

Wesley B. Baker, Ashwin B. Parthasarathy, Lian He, Venkaiah C. Kavuri, Mamadou Diop, Daniel Milej, David R. Busch, Kimberly P. Gannon, Michael T. Mullen, John A. Detre, Daniel J. Licht, Keith St. Lawrence, Ramani Balu, W. Andrew Kofke, and Arjun G. Yodh

2018-04-06

We validated a novel approach for measurement of critical closing pressure with near-infrared light via comparison to Doppler ultrasound measurements in healthy adults. We further measured arteriole compliance and cerebral blood flow with the approach.

Dynamic autoregulation of cerebral blood flow measured non-invasively with fast diffuse correlation spectroscopy

Journal of Cerebral Blood Flow & Metabolism

Show less Ashwin B Parthasarathy, Kimberly P Gannon, Wesley B Baker, Christopher G Favilla, Ramani Balu, Scott E Kasner, Arjun G Yodh, John A Detre, Michael T Mullen

2017-12-12

Cerebral autoregulation (CA) maintains cerebral blood flow (CBF) in the presence of systemic blood pressure changes. Brain injury can cause loss of CA and resulting dysregulation of CBF, and the degree of CA impairment is a functional indicator of cerebral tissue health. Here, we demonstrate a new approach to noninvasively estimate cerebral autoregulation in healthy adult volunteers. The approach employs pulsatile CBF measurements obtained using high-speed diffuse correlation spectroscopy (DCS). Rapid thigh-cuff deflation initiates a chain of responses that permits estimation of rates of dynamic autoregulation in the cerebral microvasculature.

External Service & Affiliations

American Academy of Neurology : Member
American Physician Scientist Association : Member
American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology : Diplomate in Neurology and Vascular Neurology