Dr. Shiv Saidha specializes in the diagnosis, management, and treatment of multiple sclerosis (MS), as well as other neuroimmunological disorders of the central nervous system, including those afflicting the brain, spinal cord, and optic nerves.

Dr. Saidha received his medical degree, as well as his postgraduate Doctor of Medicine, from the National University of Ireland, Galway (NUIG), Ireland. He completed residency training in general internal medicine at Galway University Hospitals, Ireland. Subsequent to this he completed residency training in neurology at Galway, Cork, and Beaumont (located in Dublin) University Hospitals, Ireland. He then completed a further three years of specialized fellowship training in neuroimmunology & neuroinfectious diseases at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland. He is currently an Associate Professor of Neurology at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

Dr. Saidha’s research interests to date have predominantly focused on the non-invasive interrogation of retinal structures using optical coherence tomography (OCT) and OCT angiography (OCTA) in multiple sclerosis (MS), in order to identify and investigate novel outcome strategies for assessing and monitoring neuroprotection and neurorestoration in MS, as well as to further our understanding of the pathobiology of MS, including how retinal pathology in MS may be related to more global central nervous system disturbances. He has been at the fore of discovering and demonstrating that inner and outer retinal layer pathology occur within the unmyelinated retina in MS (both quantitatively and qualitatively). He is committed to continuing to delineate and ascertain the mechanisms involved in the development of these findings, the clinical relevance of these changes (both locally in the retina, as well as more globally), and determine if this information may be used to guide the development of new, and potentially unique/novel effective MS therapies. His work to date has been primarily structurally focused (both within the retina using OCT and OCTA, as well as more globally within the central nervous system through the assessment of brain substructure volumes, diffusion tensor imaging & magnetization transfer ratio metrics within specific pathways in MS). He also has expertise in the functional assessment of the anterior visual pathway in MS through the application of multifocal electroretinography, pupillometry, and retinal function imaging techniques, amongst others, as well as of global and regional brain metabolism. He has published first author papers in Lancet, Lancet Neurology, Annals of Neurology, Brain, Neurology, JAMA neurology, and Multiple Sclerosis Journal amongst others.