My immediate goal is to develop a comprehensive spinal oncology clinical program at Indiana University. This program with implement a multidisciplinary approach to treating patients with primary and metastatic spinal cancer. The primary disciplines involved will be Neurosurgery, Medical Oncology, Radiation Oncology, Physiatry and Pain Anesthesiology. The establishment of a monthly spine oncology tumor board will be the first step in developing the program from a clinical standpoint. Once the program has been established, then patients can be enrolled in various clinical research programs that focus on the care of patients with spinal cancer. In addition, studies will be initiated from IU analyzing the role of surgical and nonsurgical management of spinal cancer. Specific areas to be investigated include surgical treatment for mechanical pain in spinal metastatic disease, minimally invasive surgical approaches for treating spinal cancer and stereotactic radiosurgery in the post-operative treatment of spinal cancer. I have also established a spinal biomechanical laboratory at IU which will be instrumental in analyzing the efficacy of different surgical approaches and instrument constructs for spinal reconstruction following surgical resection of spinal cancers. Through this laboratory, the spinal oncology program will be able to further advance the surgical treatment of spinal cancer.
Fellowship - Barrow Neurological Institute, Phoenix, AZ 2003 and 2005
Residency - Barrow Neurological Institute, Phoenix, AZ 2001-2006
Ph.D. - University of Illinois, Urbana, IL 2000
M.D. - University of Illinois, Urbana, IL 2000
