The Bassett Healthcare Network has a new chief of neurology.
According to a Bassett news release, Dr. Ramesh Cherukuri took over the position in January, “bringing with him a wealth of knowledge and clinical experience.” Neurology is the area of medicine that deals with diseases affecting the brain, the spinal cord, the nerves and the muscles.
Cherukuri completed his undergraduate studies at Siena College, just outside of Albany, according to the release. He attended medical school at the American University of Antigua College of Medicine in Antigua. After graduation, he returned to New York, completing clinical rotations in Brooklyn and at Upstate Medical Center in Syracuse. He remained at Upstate Medical for four years of residency training and a one-year clinical neurophysiology fellowship.
He then joined a private practice in New Hartford, where he provided care for seven years, the release stated.
“I finally came to Bassett because of my wife, who already worked for the network. She told me it was a great place to work,” Cherukuri said. “I always imagined coming home to practice and helping the people I grew up around.”
“Dr. Cherukuri is looking forward to expanding Bassett Healthcare Network’s Neurology Division while maintaining the quality services its highly-experienced caregivers provide,” the release stgated.
“The neurologists at Bassett Healthcare Network have been practicing for quite a while. Some have decades of experience,” he said. “Right now, as my first goal, the division is working towards scheduling its first patients for ambulatory electroencephalography, which is a better and more sensitive means of testing for epilepsy.”
Electroencephalography, better known as EEG, is a test that records electrical activity in the brain. Routine EEGs are conducted at the hospital and typically last about 30 minutes, “which provides only a small sample recording of brain activity,” the release stated. In an ambulatory EEG, the patient is instead fitted with an EEG at the hospital and sent home, where brain activity is recorded over the course of several days. That provides neurologists with much more data, allowing them to make more accurate diagnoses.
Cherukuri is accepting internal referrals from Bassett providers. He practices at Bassett Medical Center in Cooperstown and Oneonta Specialty Services.