Nicole F. O'Brien, MD

Nicole F. O'Brien, MD, is a Critical Care physician at Nationwide Children's. She is an Associate Professor of Clinical Medicine for The Ohio State University College of Medicine. Dr. O'Brien earned her Bachelor of Science in biology at Ohio Northern University and attended medical school at the Medical College of Ohio. She completed her residency and pediatric critical care fellowship at the University of California, San Diego. Dr. O'Brien is a member of the Society of Critical Care Medicine, American Medical Association, American Academy of Pediatrics and Christian Medical and Dental Association. Her clinical and research interests are in neurocritical care and global health.

Dr. O'Brien is a 2015 Fulbright Africa Regional Research Program Award recipient where she worked with the Kinshasa School of Public Health in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo, on research entitled, "The epidemiology of acute neurologic illness and injury in children in urban and rural Democratic Republic of the Congo." Since then, she has collaborated on and received several NIH grants to evaluate the pathophysiology of neurologic injury during cerebral malaria and bacterial meningitis in children in resource limited settings.  She has also worked to establish 6 transcranial doppler centers of excellence in the DRC, Zambia, and Malawi that have improved the neurodiagnostic capabilities at each site. Emerging work is expanding to include stroke risk evaluation of children with sickle cell disease at these sites.

She is also President and CEO of the nonprofit, Restore Elikia, which works to provide sustainable orphan care and community development by the provision of clean water, food, education and medical care in a remote region of the Congo.