Maria Houtchens, MD, MSc

I am a neurologist specializing in research and treatment of multiple sclerosis. I focus on women’s health in MS, with a particular interest in pregnancy management and short and long-term outcomes in this patient population. I am a founding director of the Women’s Health Program at the Brigham MS Center. I study unique clinical, and neuroimaging features of pregnant and post-partum MS patients. In addition, I am the founder and the PI of PREG-MS, a collaborative New England MS Pregnancy Registry, bringing together 10 MS centers and clinics in the New England area of the United States. This is the first such prospective MS pregnancy registry in the US. The registry has recruited and followed 250 pregnant MS patients and their children for up to three years post-partum. I am the Founding Board Member of the MS-CERCH, an international consortium of the MS Centers of Excellence in Reproductive and Child Health. Through close collaboration with Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), I have developed guidelines for safe contraceptive practices for MS patients. I have directed educational and scientific programs on women’s health in MS at major national and international conferences. I am the editor and a co-author of “Women’s Health in MS” book published in November 2016. I am also worked and published in an area of optimizing health care delivery, personal safety and quality of life research in female MS (MeTooMS) and in the field of imaging correlates of cognitive dysfunction in MS. I direct Women’s Neurology fellowship program at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Ongoing and future collaborations include studies on maternal and infant microbiome changes in pregnant and post-partum women with MS and impact of COVID19 pandemic on reproductive behaviors and outcomes in our patients. I have published numerous original clinical investigations and peer-reviewed articles in the MS, demyelinating diseases, and reproductive health fields.