From growing up in a small village in India with only one physician to being named one of Memphis’ 40 Under 40, Balaji Krishnaiah, MD, has built a career focused on improving patient care, education, and community impact.
As division chief of Vascular Neurology, program director of Neurology Residency, and associate professor in the University of Tennessee Health Science Center College of Medicine, Dr. Krishnaiah has transformed stroke care in Memphis. Being one of the Memphis Business Journal’s 2025 40 Under 40 honorees recognizes the impact he has had by being a dedicated teacher, physician, researcher, and advocate.
Dr. Krishnaiah’s commitment to stroke care traces back to a pivotal childhood moment when his father had a stroke. As an eighth grader, he grappled with understanding the situation, but the empathetic care of his father’s doctor left a lasting impression.
“My dad’s neurologist hugged me and told me, ‘He’ll be all right. It will take some time, and you’ve got to support him, but he’s going to walk.’ That made a huge difference for me. Even though I didn’t know what was going on, I hung onto those words, that he’s going to be all right,” he said. “Going through that, I know what it means to be a stroke survivor’s family member, and I want to be that comforting voice for people.”
His education began in India, where he earned his medical degree before moving to the United States for further training. He completed his neurology residency at Penn State University, where he distinguished himself as chief resident, and then pursued a vascular neurology fellowship at UT Health Science Center. Dr. Krishnaiah said the opportunities he was granted through hard work during his fellowship made him want to stay at the university for his career.
Since completing his fellowship in 2018, Dr. Krishnaiah has taken on several roles, including neuroscience course director and vice chair of education in the Department of Neurology. Although he has earned more than 30 awards for teaching, one of his proudest accomplishments is motivating more students to pursue neurology.
“Before I took over the neuroscience course, only one or two students a year wanted to go into neurology. But in the past three or four years, we have had eight to 10 students who want to go into neurology,” he said.
To get even more students into neurology, Dr. Krishnaiah spearheaded a pipeline initiative to introduce younger students to the field. In addition to incorporating neurology into the curriculum for first-year medical students, the initiative includes engaging with local undergraduate students interested in neurological sciences.
“We are going to the neuroscience heads and to the pre-med advisors at local colleges to see if there are any students who want to do medical school,” he said. “We let them come to the campus, expose them to the basics of neurology, and let them work with us, so we can get their attention early, even before they enter medical school.” Dr. Krishnaiah also wants to introduce a neuroscience competition called Brain Bee to Memphis to inspire local high school students to learn about the brain, brain disorders, treatments, and cures.
Among Dr. Krishnaiah’s achievements that have earned recognition is the telestroke program he introduced in his roles at UT Health Science Center and as medical director of the Methodist Comprehensive Stroke Center. The program allowed for uninterrupted care during the COVID-19 pandemic and has benefited thousands of Memphians by streamlining treatment and improving patient outcomes.
Dr. Krishnaiah also takes pride in transforming patient care through research. He has published 30 peer-reviewed articles and 70 abstracts and is currently the primary investigator for five National Institutes of Health-funded trials. His leadership in NIH trials has positioned Memphis as a leading city for stroke research.
“We have complex patients here, but the patients we serve have not always been well represented in clinical trials,” he said. “Since coming here, we have been part of multiple NIH clinical trials, and recently, we finished two trials where we were the highest randomizers in the country. So now, our community is well represented in those studies.”
Another way Dr. Krishnaiah works to improve patient care is by advocating in the nation’s capital. Each year, he participates in the American Academy of Neurology’s Neurology Day on the Hill and is one of four neurologists from Tennessee who travel to Washington, D.C., to discuss issues affecting neurology patients with members of Congress. “I feel like that is where I’m making the biggest difference because it’s on a larger scale. I’m not talking about one patient or 10 patients I’m seeing daily; this is about all the patients with neurological conditions in the entire country,” he said.
Due to his numerous accomplishments, Dr. Krishnaiah has earned dozens of awards on both the local and national levels. The American Academy of Neurology has recognized him with its highest teaching honor, the A.B. Baker Award, as well as the prestigious Neuroscience Course Director Excellence Award. He has also been named the Mayo Clinic’s Burton A. Sandok Visiting Professor of Neurological Education, received the Penn State Alumni Achievement Award, and was a finalist for the Memphis Business Journal’s 2024 Health Care Heroes Awards. While he is honored by these recognitions, being named one of MBJ’s 40 Under 40 holds even greater significance for him.
“I don’t do things so that I can be recognized with an award, but this honor has felt fulfilling in the sense that all of my previous awards have been within the medical field. This is the first award outside of that system, recognized by the community,” he said. “It motivates me even more than before to continue to push harder for our community and the larger society.”
Dr. Krishnaiah enjoys being a role model for his trainees and all future doctors. He hopes his latest honor will inspire them, showing that hard work often pays off. “One of the reasons I came to this country was to live this American dream,” he said. “It doesn’t matter who you are or where you’re from; as long as you’re committed and work hard, you’ll be recognized.”