Walter Kernan

Walter N. Kernan is professor emeritus of internal medicine and senior research scientist at Yale University. He completed his residency at Johns Hopkins Hospital followed by fellowship training in the Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholars Program at Yale. He subsequently joined the Yale faculty in the Section of General Internal Medicine. Dr. Kernan’s career has included medical education and research on prevention of cerebrovascular disease, and he founded and directed the ambulatory component of the Internal Medicine Clerkship from 1993 to 2016. His research on student education focused on effective strategies for teaching in the ambulatory care setting and evaluation of teaching quality. In cerebrovascular disease, Dr. Kernan’s research has included clinical trials of new therapies for prevention of recurrent stroke (estrogen, thiazolidinediones), cohort studies of prognosis, case-control studies of risk factors, and cross-sectional examinations of quality of care. He was principal investigator for the Insulin Resistance Intervention after Stroke (IRIS) Trial which showed that pioglitazone was effective for prevention of stroke and myocardial infarction among non-diabetic patients with a recent ischemic stroke or TIA and insulin resistance. The IRIS trial lent support for additional research on other behavioral, dietary, and pharmaceutical interventions that target dysmetabolic states, such as pre-diabetes, diabetes, and obesity. Dr. Kernan’s professional service outside Yale has included work on behalf of the National Institutes of Neurological Disorders, the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, and Stroke and the American Heart Association.