First in the World

In addition to offering our patients every type of advanced and complex brain and spine tumor surgeries imaginable to treat their conditions, no matter how complex, I am also constantly innovating and developing new techniques and operations which can then be used by others all over the world. I developed and described a way to merge preoperative MRI scans with intraoperative CT scans in order to optimize the use of navigation for the resection of complex tumors (D'Andrea K, 2015). I designed a single-stage, lower morbidity operation to treat a young man with a catastrophic injury (Sandquist L, 2015), which was featured on the cover of our highest impact factor specialty journal (Journal of Neurosurgery: Spine). Faced with challenging cases, I always strive to work with my surgical colleagues to develop new operations and techniques to treat our most challenging patients. Whenever possible, we try to write up and publish these techniques for the benefit of other patients not directly under our care (Examples include: Le J, 2015; Goldman JJ, 2020).