Stephanie Prozora, MD

Stephanie Prozora, MD, is a pediatric hematologist-oncologist who cares for young patients with bleeding and clotting disorders. She treats hemophilia, low platelet count, and pediatric blood cancers among other conditions, in addition to working with patients with histories of blood clots and stroke.

“I trained in childhood cancer therapy because I really love the resiliency that kids have, and I like treating chronic and complex illnesses,” Dr. Prozora says. “That led me to bleeding disorders, because they are chronic, lifelong health issues that need to be addressed.”

Dr. Prozora’s cases have included bleeding disorders that are so rare only a handful of children in the world are diagnosed with them. It helps that new therapeutic options are becoming available all the time, she says.

She works as part of multidisciplinary team of providers that are devoted to making sure young patients understand their condition and treatment options. “We start with very early education,” she says. “We teach them to name their diagnosis, to know their medicine, and to know what to do in an emergency. As the years go by, we teach them more and more so they can become independent in their health care when they are adults.”

In addition to caring for patients, Dr. Prozora is pediatric medical director of the Yale Hemophilia Treatment Center and a member of Yale Medicine’s vascular malformation group, which addresses care for all patients with vascular malformations and anomalies. She defines the latter as any abnormality of the blood vessels that can bleed or clot.

An assistant professor of clinical pediatrics, Dr. Prozora is involved in a variety of research projects aimed at better understanding bleeding disorders in children and women. She also has developed new clinical pathways (structured care plans used to guide evidence-based health care) for Yale New Haven Health.