Prateek Agarwal, MD

Prateek Agarwal, MD, MBA, joined the University of Pittsburgh Department of Neurological Surgery residency program in July 2020 after earning a dual MD/MBA degree from the Perelman School of Medicine and Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. At the Perelman School of Medicine, he was elected into the Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society and received the Spencer Morris Prize, the School of Medicine’s highest academic honor. Prior to medical and business school, he graduated summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from Harvard University in 2015 with an AB in molecular and cellular biology and secondary field in economics.

Dr. Agarwal is currently pursuing an enfolded endovascular neurosurgery fellowship at UPMC, under the mentorship of Bradley Gross, MD, with plans to complete a post-residency open cerebrovascular fellowship.

Dr. Agarwal’s neurosurgical research focuses on optimizing clinical outcomes, with an emphasis on employing system-level interventions to improve patient outcomes while reducing costs. His investigation on using behavioral economics principles to reduce neurosurgical postoperative infections and implant costs was awarded the 2018 Neurosurgery Paper of the Year in Socioeconomics, Health Policy, and Law. He has also performed translational research on injectable hydrogels for intervertebral disc regeneration, supported by the Neurosurgery Research and Education Foundation (NREF) Medical Student Summer Fellowship. His undergraduate basic neuroscience research in olfaction resulted in publications in Nature Neuroscience and Nature Communications.

Dr. Agarwal is active in organized neurosurgery. He was selected as a Council of State Neurological Societies (CSNS) Socioeconomic Fellow for 2023-24 and appointed as an early career member on the AANS Education Committee in May 2022. Previously he was elected to serve on the Young Neurosurgeons Committee (YNC) in 2021 and served as the 2018 YNC MISSION fellow. He is also passionate about entrepreneurship and co-founded the medical device startup Sanguis, which won 1st place at the 2018 Penn Wharton Entrepreneurship Startup Challenge.

Dr. Agarwal was born and raised in New Jersey. Outside of neurosurgery, he enjoys aviation, water polo, swimming, tennis and spending time with his family and friends.