Emily Adhikari, M.D.

Dr. Adhikari is a member of the Division of Maternal–Fetal Medicine in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center.  Her clinical practice is in the Parkland Health and Hospital System where she serves as Medical Director of Perinatal Infectious Diseases.  She works closely with the leadership at Parkland Hospital and the Dallas County Health Department to coordinate infectious disease surveillance and treatment for pregnant women with HIV and syphilis as well as emerging pathogens such as SARS-CoV-2, zika, measles, and ebola viruses. Additionally, she is a leader in the screening and treatment of pregnant women with opioid-use disorder in pregnancy at Parkland Hospital.

After graduating from Rice University in Houston, Texas with a Bachelor’s degree in Biochemistry and Spanish in 2003, Dr. Adhikari completed two years of medical school at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center in Lubbock (2006-2008).  After her second year, she accepted a Doris Duke Clinical Research Fellowship at UT Southwestern in Dallas and spent a year learning clinical research design. 

In 2010, she was elected to the Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Society, and subsequently received her Doctor of Medicine at UT Southwestern in 2011.  This was followed by a residency in obstetrics and gynecology at Parkland Memorial Hospital where she was named Chief Resident in her final year.  After residency, Dr. Adhikari completed a three-year Fellowship in Maternal–Fetal Medicine in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at UT Southwestern, with a focus on infectious diseases affecting pregnant women. In 2018, she joined the Department’s faculty as an Assistant Professor on the clinical scholar track.

Early on in her training, Dr. Adhikari recognized that women who have limited access to healthcare outside of pregnancy were most at risk for developing both obstetrical and neonatal complications.  This led her to dedicate her career to optimizing maternal health outcomes in disadvantaged populations.

In addition to caring for pregnant women at Parkland Hospital and teaching physicians in training, Dr. Adhikari conducts research aimed at fighting infectious diseases in pregnancy, reducing the primary cesarean delivery rate, and understanding opioid-use disorder among pregnant women. Her research is supported by the Parkland Obstetric Quality and Research Center, which receives grant funding through the Simmons Sister Fund.

Dr. Adhikari is a Fellow of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, Associate member in the Society for Maternal–Fetal Medicine, a member of the American Institute of Ultrasound in Medicine and the American Sexually Transmitted Diseases Association, and an Associate member of the Infectious Diseases Society of America. 

She has attended National Institutes of Health (NIH) workshops focused on reducing maternal mortality and eliminating congenital syphilis in the United States.  At the local and state levels, she is a voting member of the Institutional Review Board at UT Southwestern, a clinical expert on the Dallas Fetal Infant Mortality Review board for Congenital Syphilis, and is Parkland’s Maternal-Fetal Medicine physician lead in the Texas Alliance for Innovation on Maternal Health (AIM) state collaborative to treat opioid-use disorder in pregnancy. She is a reviewer for the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Clinical Infectious Diseases, and AIDS Patient Care and STDs and was among the top 10% of reviewers for Obstetrics and Gynecology in 2018 and 2019.