Here are 15 spine surgeons who were in the news this week.
Alejandro Betancourt, MD, of Harlingen (Texas) Spine & Neurosurgical Institute performed the Rio Grande Valley's first sacroiliac joint surgery at Valley Baptist Medical Center in Harlingen.
Anaheim, Calif.-based Healthpointe welcomed minimally invasive spine surgeon Alex Etemad, MD, to the physician team.
Stefano M. Sinicropi, MD, joined Greenway Surgery Center in Minneapolis as a new physician partner. He is the president and CEO of Edina, Minn.-based Midwest Spine and Brain Institute.
The International Journal of Spine Surgery is now on PubMed and has named several surgeon editors:
• Domagoj Coric, MD, Carolina Neurosurgery and Spine Associates: Complications
• Paul McAfee, MD, St. Josephs Medical Center: Cervical Spine
• Frank Phillips, MD, Rush University Medical Center: MIS
• Matthew Scott-Young, MD, Pacific Private Clinic: Biologics
• Wei Tian, MD, Beijing Jishuitan Hospital: Navigation
• Huilin Yang, MD, First Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University: Tumors
• Jim Yue, MD, Yale University School of Medicine: Endoscopic MIS
• Jack Zigler, MD, Texas Back Institute: Total Disc Replacement
Green Bay, Wis.-based BayCare Clinic neurosurgeon Richard Harrison, MD, was featured in a local ABC report for flying his single-engine plane to see patients in remote areas.
Froedtert and the Medical College of Wisconsin Froedtert Hospital in Milwaukee joined the InVivo Therapeutics spinal cord injury treatment investigational device exemption clinical trial and Shekar Kurpad, MD, became the site's principal investigator.
Scott Blumenthal, MD, a spine surgeon at Plano-based Texas Back Institute and co-medical director for VertiFlex, was featured in the news discussing the FDA's Orthopedic and Rehabilitation Devices Advisory Panel voting to grant premarket approval for the Superion Interspinous Spacer System.
Neurosurgeon Markus Chwajol, MD, of Presence Neuroscience Institute in Joliet, was featured in The Herald News discussing concussion education for youth athletes.