John C. Probasco, MD

Dr. Probasco is a professor at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine Department of Neurology. He is the Vice Chair for Quality, Safety, and Service for the department. He also serves as the Director of the Johns Hopkins Division of Advanced Clinical Neurology as well as the Medical Director of the Johns Hopkins Inpatient General Neurology Service. He co-directs the Johns Hopkins Encephalitis Center and the Johns Hopkins Center for Refractory Status Epilepticus and Neuroinflammation. He cares for general neurology inpatients and outpatients, specializing in autoimmune and paraneoplastic syndromes as well as neurological immune-related adverse events following immunotherapies for cancer. 

After completing his undergraduate studies in biochemistry at the University of New Mexico, Dr. Probasco attended the University of Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar and earned a second undergraduate degree in psychology, philosophy and physiology. He went on to earn his medical degree at the University of California, San Francisco. He completed an internship in internal medicine at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center and a residency in neurology at Johns Hopkins, where he was the faculty liaison/executive chief resident. He went on to complete an instructorship in inpatient general neurology at Johns Hopkins.

Dr. Probasco’s research interests include increasing care value through improving outcomes, incorporation of patient experience of disease and treatment, the efficiency of care delivery, and diagnostic test utilization in general and specifically in relation to autoimmune and paraneoplastic neurological syndromes, including encephalitis. Finally, he is interested in the management of neurological immune-related adverse events following immunotherapies for the treatment of cancer.

Dr. Probasco has been recognized at the departmental, institutional, and national levels for teaching and clinical excellence, including the American Academy of Neurology’s A.B. Baker Teacher Recognition Award and the Frank L. Coulson, Jr. Award from the Johns Hopkins Medicine Miller-Coulson Academy of Clinical Excellence.  He is a past graduate of the Johns Hopkins Armstrong Institute Resident Scholars (AIRS) program in Patient Safety and Quality.  As a faculty member, he was inducted into the Miller-Coulson Academy of Clinical Excellence in 2019. He serves as Editor-in-Chief of NEJM Journal Watch Neurology.