Research Interests

• Acute Management of Pediatric Stroke with pharmacotherapeutics and mechanical thrombectomy
• Detection and pathophysiology of Migraine and Epilepsy-Related Pediatric Stroke Mimics
• Neurological symptoms and management of non-anemic iron deficiency in children and adolescents

View Dr. Cummings' full list of publications from PubMed.

Biography Summary

Dr. Dana Cummings is an Assistant Professor in the Division of Child Neurology in the Department of Pediatrics, Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC and University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. Dr. Cummings’ excitement about developmental neuroscience and neurophysiology began during his undergraduate studies in biomedical engineering at Brown University. As an NIH-funding Medical Scientist Training Program trainee at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, he completed MD/PhD in Neuroscience focused on mechanisms of short-term synaptic plasticity at hippocampal synapses in 1996. He completed Pediatrics Residency at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and Pediatric Neurology Residency at Johns Hopkins Hospital. As neurology resident he investigated the cognitive and behavioral effects of guanfacine in children with Tourette Syndrome. After residency, he served as Clinical consultant on Neurodevelopmental disabilities, Center for Development and Learning, Kennedy Krieger Institute from 2001 to 2010.

With a long-term interest in global medicine and medical education, Dr. Cummings served as a physician educator at Hacettepe University School of Medicine, Ankara Turkey. As Consultant in neurology and pediatrics for ZdravPlus (USAID funded healthcare reform project), he and his family lived in the Kyrgyz Republic for five years. He provided training in pediatric neurology, emergency medicine, and neurorehabiltation and introduced models of multi-disciplinary care in cerebral palsy and stroke in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, and Tajikistan. In 2014, Dr. Cummings provided a pediatric neurology and epilepsy training course and clinical preceptorship at the National Research Center for Maternal and Child Health, Astana, Kazakhstan as an outreach of Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC (CHP). Dr. Cummings serves as an advisor for pediatric neurology residents planning international rotations.

Dr. Cummings joined the faculty of the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine in 2010, as director of the Pediatric Stroke Program at CHP. He served as the site investigator the NIH-funded Thrombolysis in Pediatric Stroke (TIPS) trial. He currently serves as the pediatric neurology member of the Research Advisory Committee, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine Coordinating Center, NINDS Stroke Trials Network. He is a cerebrovascular diseases section reviewer for Pediatric Neurology, an Elsevier Journal.

Dr. Cummings precepts medical students and residents on inpatient care as well as emergency care of outpatients. He also serves as a preceptor for Problem-Based Learning (PBL) for Medical Students.

Dr. Cummings provides stroke consultations to the emergency department, inpatient and consult services and he staffs twice-monthly outpatient stroke clinics. He is the neurology consultant for the Vascular Anomalies Clinic of CHP and the site pediatric neurologist for the Hereditary Hemorrhagic Telangiectasia North American Center for Excellence at UPMC.