No Stone Unturned

Dr. Juan Pascual pursues answers for every child.

Treating Children With Complex Neurological Diseases Doesn’t Usually Come With a Playbook. Juan Pascual, MD, PhD, Chief of Pediatric Neurology at NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center and NYP Komansky Children’s Hospital of Children’s Hospital of New York, is working to change that.

Dr. Pascual is creating an ecosystem of support that is as invisible to his patients as it is indispensable to their care.

“My role is to create a seamless experience,” he explains. “From the outside, a family might see one consultation. But behind that visit is a coordinated effort across research, technology, and clinical insight.”

His mission at NYP is clear: to ensure no family has to travel for what should be available locally. Since arriving at the Hospital one year ago, he has built a model of neurological care spanning all of NYP. This network of care allows the system to act like a relay team: constant communication and no lapses.

At the Children’s Hospital of New York, the departments of Pediatric Neurology and Neurosurgery are the highest ranked in the city. As part of our exceptional, whole-child approach, technological advancement is at the core of our work.

Dr. Pascual is developing experimental models to study the molecular origins of neurological disease so that if a patient presents with a unique gene mutation, he can recreate it in the lab to try to understand how to address it. This kind of individualized science is time-intensive, resource-heavy, and emotionally taxing. For Dr. Pascual, it’s the only way forward.

“People come to us not because we have all the answers but because we care enough to keep looking,” he says.

His dedication to individualized care has led to breakthroughs, including a machine that can keep the brain alive outside the body. Originally developed to study brain function independent of the body’s influence, it’s now being explored for making open-heart surgeries safer because of the way it replicates natural blood flow.

His work is changing outcomes for children and families. And while not every question has an answer, Dr. Pascual is determined that someone will always try to find it.

“What people want is to be taken seriously,” he says. “To know that nothing was left unexplored. That we turned over every stone. And we do.”