After his Oxford, D. Phil (neuroscience) and BM BCh, Dr Thaler trained in neurology at Harvard (Longwood) Neurology Residency Training Program following which he did a Fellowship in Critical Care Neurology with Allan Ropper at Tufts. He directed the Tufts Comprehensive Stroke Center at Tufts Medical Center from 1998 until he became a Professor and Chairman of Neurology at the Tufts University School of Medicine in 2014. His research interest has been in stroke prevention including the risks of arterial dissection and stroke following cervical (chiropractic) manipulation, PFO, and LAA occlusion. He was Co-PI on the Risk of Paradoxical Embolism (RoPE) Study with his Tufts colleague, David Kent, MD, from which the RoPE Score was born.