
My clinical areas of expertise include spinal surgery, especially cervical spine surgery where I have performed over 7,00 cervical spine procedures and recently was ranked the top cervical spine surgeon in the country by MPIRICA (an analytical company that reviews surgical outcomes). I believe the whole patient is important and we emphasize time with the patient and careful discussions regarding possible surgery. Our excellent results are due to a great team of physicians, nurses, CRNAs, and anesthesiologists. I also believe in the spiritual side in taking care of my patients. Through my Masters in Academic Medicine degree, I developed the Surgical Autonomy Program which is now used in over 30 Neurosurgery Programs across the country and is an innovative way to teach, assess, and provide feedback to residents in the intraoperative environment.
Over the last twelve years we have developed the first ever Division of Global Neurosurgery and Neurology, where I serve as the Division Chief and the Division boasts 98 members including faculty, graduate and medical students, undergraduate students and an outstanding staff of researchers, most located in the Duke Global Health Institute. The Division has published over 75 manuscripts between 2014 and 2020. We have primarily worked in building capacity, teaching, and collaborative research projects in Uganda.
In 2019 I was invited to join the faculty at the Duke Singapore new Global Health Institute and we are planning our first neurosurgical camp with the Singapore Neuroscience Department in May of 2020.
Education and Training
- University of Washington, M.D. 1987
- University of Washington, Ph.D. 1988
- University of Southern California, M.Med.Sc. 2016
Selected Grants and Awards
- NINDS Research Education Programs for Residents and Fellows in Neurosurgery
- Uganda Epilepsy Center of Excellence
- EDUCATIONAL GRANT
- Mission Trip to Uganda
- 2015 Mission Trip to Uganda
- Uganda Epilepsy Center of Excellence
- EDUCATIONAL GRANT
- Improving Spine Clinic Communication Through Mobile Technology
- Surigcal Site Bundle for Spine Post Operative Care
- Neocortical hemodynamics during epileptic activity in primates and humans
- Exploratory genomic investigations of mesial temporal lobe epilepsy
- Multimodality Word-Finding in Neurosurgical Language Mapping
- Evaluation of Optical Imaging for Seizure Localization
- Opitcal Imaging of Epileptiform Activity in Neocortex
- Cortical Distinctions in Visual and Auditory Naming
- Optical Imaging Of Seizure Propagation
- Optical Imaging Of Seizure Propogation