Here are 35+ spine surgeons holding PhDs.
To recommend an addition to the list, please email Shayna Korol at skorol@beckershealthcare.com.
Hamid Abbasi, MD, PhD, neurosurgeon at Tristate Brain and Spine Institute in Alexandria, Minn., who specializes in minimally invasive spinal deformity correction and scoliosis.
Carmina Angeles, MD, PhD, neurosurgeon at the NeuroSpine Institute in Eugene, Ore. who specializes in minimally invasive techniques, complex decompression and stabilization for tumor, vertebral body fractures and degenerative scoliosis. Dr. Angeles holds dual doctorate degrees in medicine from Meharry Medical College's Medical Scientist Training Program in Nashville.
Kevin Cahill, MD, PhD, neurosurgeon at Carolina Neurosurgery & Spine Associates in Charlotte, N.C.., who specializes in minimally invasive spine surgery and spinal fusion.
Andrew Cannestra, MD, PhD, neurosurgeon at Lyerly Neurosurgery in Jacksonville, Fla., specializing in robotic spinal surgery, spinal cord injury and spine reconstructive procedures.
Woojin Cho, MD, PhD, orthopedic spine surgeon, assistant professor of orthopedic surgery and chief of spine surgery at Montefiore Medical Center in New York City. Dr. Cho specializes in adult thoracolumbar spinal deformity and degenerative conditions. His research interests include spine biomechanics and robotic surgery.
Arthur Chou, MD, PhD, neurosurgeon at Arthur Po-Fei Chou MD Inc. in Downey, Calif., specializing in neck pain, back pain, cervical stenosis, lumbar stenosis and herniated discs. Dr. Chou is interested in gliomas.
Jay Young Chun, MD, PhD, neurosurgeon director of neurotrauma at Morristown (N.J.) Memorial Medical Center. Dr. Chun specializes in complex and minimally invasive spine surgery.
Aaron Clark, MD, PhD, neurosurgeon and assistant professor of neurological surgery at UC San Francisco Spine Center, who specializes in minimally invasive spine surgery.
Michael Cluck, MD, PhD, orthopedic spine surgeon and owner of Bay Area Spine Care in San Jose, Calif., who specializes in minimally invasive spine surgery and motion preservation surgery including artificial disc replacement.
Jason M. Cuéllar, MD, PhD, orthopedic spine surgeon and assistant professor of orthopedic surgery at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles and Beverly Hills, Calif., specializing in total disc replacement, including revision arthroplasty and motion preservation surgery.
Matthew Cunningham, MD, PhD, orthopedic spine surgeon, assistant professor of orthopedic surgery and interim chief of the scoliosis service at Hospital for Special Surgery in New York City, who is interested in thoracic and lumbar spine care including spine deformity and degenerative problems. Dr. Cunningham received his dual doctorate from the New York City-based Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons' Medical Scientist Training Program.
Clifford Douglas, MD, PhD, neurosurgeon at Loma Linda (Calif.) University Medical Center. Dr. Douglas performs minimally invasive spine surgery, neuroendoscopic surgery, spinal reconstruction and motion preservation spine surgery.
Daryll Dykes, MD, PhD, orthopedic spine surgeon, president and CEO of Medical and Surgical Spine Consultants of Minnesota in Edina, where he specializes in adult and pediatric complex reconstructive spine surgery. Dr. Dykes is also a health law and policy scholar.
Michael Fehlings, MD, PhD, neurosurgeon at the University of Toronto in Canada who focuses on complex spine surgery.
Kai-Ming Fu, MD, PhD, is a neurosurgeon at the New York City-based Weill Cornell Medicine Brain and Spine Center who specializes in spinal deformity.
S. Raymond Golish, MD, PhD, orthopedic spine surgeon at David Campbell MDPA, in Jupiter, Fla., and Plantation, Fla.
Martin Herman, MD, PhD, neurosurgeon at the Park Ridge, Ill.-based Center of Brain and Spine Surgery. Dr. Herman specializes in minimally invasive spine surgery and was featured on the first live spine surgery webcast in 2002.
Christopher Holland, MD, PhD, neurosurgeon at Carolina Neurosurgery & Spine Associates in Concord, N.C., and Huntersville, N.C., who specializes in degenerative spine conditions and spinal instability.
Dale Horne, MD, PhD, neurosurgeon at Mayfield Brain & Spine in Cincinnati, who specializes in minimally invasive spine surgery and complex spine deformities.
Philip Horne, MD, PhD, orthopedic surgeon at Duke Health in Raleigh, N.C., who specializes in cervical and lumbar disc herniations and stenosis, degenerative neck and back conditions and spinal deformity.
Robin John Hurlbert, MD, PhD, neurosurgeon at Banner – University Medical Center in Tucson, Ariz., who specializes in complex spine surgery, spine and spinal cord injury, craniocervical junction abnormalities and degenerative spine, Bischof's myelotomy and Charcot spine.
Randall Johnson, MD, PhD, neurosurgery at Ascension Wisconsin in Appleton, specializing in minimally invasive spine surgery, spinal fusion, peripheral nerve surgery, vascular lesions of the brain and spinal cord and pituitary surgery.
Solomon Kamson, MD, PhD, interventional pain physician, spine surgeon and founder of Seattle-based Spine Institute Northwest, who specializes in minimally invasive spine surgery.
Choll Kim, MD, PhD, orthopedic spine surgeon who specializes in computer-assisted minimally invasive spine surgery at Spine Institute of San Diego. Dr. Kim is also an associate clinical professor of orthopedic surgery at UC San Diego.
Joshua Li, MD, PhD, orthopedic spine surgeon at the University of Virginia School of Medicine in Charlottesville. Dr. Li's research focuses on intervertebral disc degeneration and back pain.
Yan Michael Li, MD, PhD, assistant professor of neurosurgery and oncology and neurosurgeon at the University of Rochester (N.Y.) Medical Center.
Timothy Lindley, MD, PhD, neurosurgeon at Heartland Orthopedic Specialists in Alexandria, Minn., who performs back, neck and spine surgery.
Kaixuan Liu, MD, PhD, interventional pain physician, spine surgeon and president of West Orange, N.J.-based Atlantic Spine Center. Dr. Liu specializes in minimally invasive endoscopic spine surgery and holds a PhD in biomedical sciences.
Gary Lowery, MD, PhD, orthopedic spine surgeon and founding member of the International Society for the Advancement of Spine Surgery. Dr. Lowery holds a dual PhD in pharmacology and nutrition.
Daniel Lu, MD, PhD, neurosurgeon who specializes in minimally invasive surgical techniques for degenerative, traumatic and neoplastic spinal disorders at UCLA Health. Dr. Lu is the director of the Neuroplasticity and Repair Laboratory and the UCLA Neuromotor Recovery and Rehabilitation Center.
Thomas Manning, MD, PhD, neurosurgeon at Neuroscience Associates in Boise, Idaho, who specializes in minimally invasive and degenerative and reconstructive spine surgery. Dr. Manning holds a PhD in biochemistry from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Alex Mohit, MD, PhD, neurosurgeon at CHI Franciscan Health in Tacoma, Wash., who specializes in spine and skull base surgery.
Benjamin Mueller, MD, PhD, orthopedic spine surgeon at Twin Cities Spine Center in Minneapolis. Dr. Mueller holds a PhD in biochemistry from the University of Minnesota Medical School in Minneapolis.
Venu Nemani, MD, PhD, dually trained orthopedic and neurospine surgeon at Raleigh (N.C.) Orthopaedic Clinic who specializes in cervical and reconstructive spine surgery. He holds a PhD in neuroscience from UC San Francisco, where he discovered a new mechanism by which nerve signaling is modulated with implications for neurodegenerative diseases.
David Okonkwo, MD, PhD, neurosurgeon at UPMC Presbyterian in Pittsburgh, who is the executive vice chair for clinical operations and director of neurotrauma, scoliosis and spinal deformity. Dr. Okonkwo is also a professor and clinical director of the Brain Trauma Research Center at the University of Pittsburgh.
Erion Qamirani, MD, PhD, orthopedic spine surgeon at Mid-Tennessee Bone & Joint Clinic in Columbia.
Rajiv Saigal, MD, PhD, neurosurgeon at University of Washington Medicine Harborview Medical Center, specializing in spinal deformity, spinal tumors, minimally invasive techniques, spinal cord injury and neurotrauma.
Lali Sekhon, MD, PhD, neurospine surgeon at Nevada Neurosurgery in Reno and Carson City. Dr. Sekhon specializes in cervical myelopathy, degenerative disc disease, spondylolisthesis, spinal tumors and trauma.
Selvon St. Clair, MD, PhD, orthopedic spine surgeon at Orthopaedic Institute of Ohio in Lima, who specializes in spine disorders. Dr. St. Clair is interested in the treatment of osteoporotic compression fractures using the latest techniques, including kyphoplasty.
Jack Stern, MD, PhD, neurosurgeon at Brain & Spine Surgeons of New York in Harrison, who focuses on spinal tumors, spinal reconstructions, degenerative disc disease and herniated discs. Dr. Stern uses conventional as well as minimally invasive techniques.
Robert Talac, MD, PhD, orthopedic spine surgeon and founder of the Advanced Spine Institute in Houston.
Albert Telfeian, MD, PhD, neurosurgeon at Hasbro Children's Hospital in Providence, R.I., where he is the director of pediatric neurosurgery. Dr. Telfeian specializes in spinal disorders and functional neurosurgery.
Constantine (Dean) Toumbis, MD, PhD, orthopedic spine surgeon at Citrus Spine Institute in Crystal River, Fla., specializing in cervical, thoracic and lumbar surgery. Dr. Toumbis holds a PhD in experimental pathology from State University of New York at Buffalo.
Jay Turner, MD, PhD, neurosurgeon at Barrow Neurological Institute in Phoenix, who specializes in spine surgery. Dr. Turner holds a PhD in physiology from the Rutgers Medical School in Newark, N.J.
Alexander Vaccaro, MD, PhD, orthopedic spine surgeon and president of the Philadelphia-based Rothman Insitute. Dr. Vaccaro holds a PhD in spinal trauma.
Michael Virk, MD, PhD, neurosurgeon and assistant professor of neurological surgery at Weill Cornell Brain and Spine Center in New York City, who specializes in minimally invasive and complex spine surgery.
Vincent Wang, MD, PhD, neurosurgeon at Seton Medical Center in Austin, specializing in degenerative spine and minimally invasive spine surgery.
Jefferson Wilson, MD, PhD, neurosurgeon at St. Michael's Hospital in Toronto, Canada, who is interested in the epidemiology of spinal trauma and spinal cord injury.
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