Neurosurgical Residency Program

All faculty are members of the Pritzker School of Medicine, the #17 ranked medical school in the 2021 U.S. News and World Report for research-intensive schools. Our medical center is part of the University's Biological Sciences Division and is headed by Mark E. Anderson MD, PhD, Dean of the Biological Sciences Division and the Pritzker School of Medicine and Executive Vice President for Medical Affairs at the University of Chicago.

Our comprehensive training program is set on an expanding clinical campus. The University of Chicago Medicine began providing adult trauma care on May 1, 2018; the first patient brought in at noon marked the official activation of the Level 1 Adult Trauma Center, another significant achievement by the organization. The adult trauma program adds to UChicago Medicine's Level 1 Pediatric Trauma Center at Comer Children’s Hospital and its Burn and Complex Wound Center services to provide the community with a comprehensive system of care to treat the full range of trauma injuries in patients of all ages. Having opened in 2005, Comer Children’s Hospital is a 300,930 square ft facility, with 172 acute care beds.

Our medical center holds distinction as a regional, national and international referral center for the specialized care of complex patients with a wide variety of challenging surgical diseases. In addition, we have a long-standing commitment to provide comprehensive care for our South Side community. The jewel of our medical center campus is the Center for Care and Discovery (CCD), a 500 in-patient bed facility, which opened in 2013. The CCD is one of the most advanced clinical and surgical centers in the country dedicated to specialty care, including cancer, gastrointestinal disease, neuroscience, advanced surgery and high-tech medical imaging. The new hospital was designed by world-renown architect, Rafael Viñoly, who created the acclaimed Charles M. Harper Center at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. This innovative hospital contains ten floors and over 1.2 million square feet for clinical activity. Our residents have access to state-of-the art simulation training at both the University of Chicago Center for Simulation and Safety and the Endeavor Health Evanston Hospital for Simulation and Innovation. Our goal is to train the best and brightest residents and provide them with the opportunity to seek top-flight fellowships and to eventually become leaders in academic surgery.

The AbbVie Foundation Cancer Pavilion is a 575,000 square foot facility dedicated entirely to cancer care and clinical research. It is the first free standing cancer center in Illinois, and one of 13 in the United States. The AbbVie Foundation Cancer Pavilion Includes 80 private in-patient beds, 90 exam/consultation rooms, and 67 private infusion bays. 

Duchossois Center for Advanced Medicine (DCAM), which is a 538,000 square foot facility that is home to dozens of primary and specialty clinics as well as a pharmacy, the building includes more than 300 exam rooms, nearly 100 procedure rooms, surgery suites and imaging equipment including PET/CT and MRI scanners.

UChicago Medicine announced that it earned its 29th sequential "A" rating in patient safety from the industry watchdog Leapfrog Group. UChicago Medicine received the prestigious Magnet Recognition status, the gold standard for nursing excellence and high-quality patient care, from the American Nurses Credentialing Center.

Chicago is an extraordinary city and our residency program provides a robust and diverse clinical environment with an ideal blend of community and academic surgical experiences. Our research opportunities are unrivaled, and our leadership is committed to providing a unique educational environment with committed faculty and incredible residents. We believe that after coming to the University of Chicago, you will find that our residents are an exceptional group of some of the most talented resident surgeons in the country.

Program Director

Martin D. Herman, MD, PhD, is the Neurosurgery Residency Program Director and an Assistant Professor in the Department of Neurosurgery and Department of Orthopedics and Rehabilitation. His clinical interests in spine surgery are particularly focused on traumatic spine injury, including fracture, instability, and spinal cord injury. He has recently published on penetrating spinal injury as well as experimental surgery for the placement of wireless multielectrode arrays into the lumbar spinal cord for the intended treatment of paraplegia using a pig model.  He actively participates in resident education conferences. He is also the director of the Kranzler Chicago Review Course in Neurosurgery, which is designed to prepare U.S. residents for the ABNS written test.

• Email: mherman1@bsd.uchicago.edu

Associate Program Director

Peleg M. Horowitz, MD, PhD, is a neurosurgeon with expertise in brain tumors and skull base tumors. He provides multidisciplinary care as a member of the neuro-oncology and skull base tumor teams. Dr. Horowitz uses endoscopic and open surgical approaches to the skull base, including advanced stereotactic and 3-D surgical planning for operative treatment and radiosurgery of both benign and malignant brain tumors. In addition to his specialization in neurosurgical oncology, he also provides general neurosurgical care, treating patients with a wide range of conditions, including hydrocephalus, head trauma, and spine pathology in adults and children.

Dr. Horowitz conducts clinical and basic science research, with emphasis on the genetics of brain and skull base tumors. His scholarly work has focused on the pathogenesis and management of nervous system tumors and on the genetic characterization of tumors, controversies in current management and decision-making, surgical technique and complication avoidance. His research on tumor genetics has been published in Nature Genetics and Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, and identified several novel genes that drive the formation of meningiomas and pediatric gliomas. His research has been funded by the Brain Science Foundation and the Department of Defense Neurofibromatosis Research Program.

• Email: phorowitz@bsd.uchicago.edu

Associate Program Director

P.B. Raksin, MD, is an Associate Professor of Neurological Surgery in the Department of Neurological Surgery at the University of Chicago Medicine. Her clinical interests include brain tumors, hydrocephalus, peripheral nerve surgery, spinal cord injury, spinal cord tumors, stroke, and traumatic brain injury (TBI). A nationally recognized leader in neurotrauma and critical care, Dr. Raksin has held numerous leadership roles within organized neurosurgery, including serving as Immediate Past Chair of the AANS/CNS Joint Section on Neurotrauma & Critical Care (JSNTCC), Chair Emeritus of the AANS/CNS Joint Guidelines Review Committee, and Chair of the CAST/SNS Neurotrauma Critical Care Advisory Committee. She currently serves as a Councilor for the Neurosurgical Society of America (NSA) and has played a key role in developing evidence-based standards of care through leadership positions on national neurosurgical guideline committees. Dr. Raksin is also a widely respected educator and scholar, serving as a Senior Guest Examiner for the American Board of Neurological Surgery and holding editorial leadership positions with World Neurosurgery, Neurosurgery, and Operative Neurosurgery. Through her clinical, academic, and organizational contributions, Dr. Raksin continues to advance the fields of neurotrauma, critical care, and neurosurgical education.

• Email: PBRaksin@bsd.uchicago.edu

Education Manager

Amy Johnson

• Email: ajohnson1@bsd.uchicago.edu

   

Most aspects of the training program are carried out at the University of Chicago Medical Center located on the Hyde Park campus. This centralized location provides enormous advantages, including the availability of faculty members with particular expertise to advise and assist in the management of all patients, as well as the opportunity to utilize the facilities afforded by one of the great universities in the country. In addition, clinical, laboratory, library and conference facilities all occupy adjoining space on the same floor. The pediatric patients are seen in the Comer Children's Hospital, which is attached to the medical center complex. Neurosurgical patients are hospitalized in the new, state-of-art hospital pavilion.

The University of Chicago Medical Center houses a Neurosciences Critical Care Unit (NeuroICU). It offers a 24-bed unit with the most advanced monitoring and treatment for patients with brain injuries and neurological diseases. Our faculty sees both adult and pediatric patients at Endeavor Health Evanston Hospital, a teaching affiliate of The University of Chicago.

The Department of Neurological Surgery is dedicated to advancing the science of neurosurgery through innovative research that bridges laboratory discovery and patient care. Our investigators pursue groundbreaking studies aimed at improving outcomes for patients with complex neurological disorders while helping shape the future of neurosurgical treatment.

The Department of Neurological Surgery at the University of Chicago Medicine is proud to announce the establishment of the Section of Computational Neurosurgery, the first section of its kind in the nation. Designed to unite neurosurgery with artificial intelligence, machine learning, data science, and advanced computational methods, the new section will drive innovation across the continuum of neurosurgical care. The section is led by Antonio R. Porras, PhD, Scientific Director of the Section of Computational Neurosurgery, and Rohaid Ali, MD, Clinical Director of the Section of Computational Neurosurgery.

Spine Surgery research at the Department of Neurological Surgery research focuses on advancing the understanding and treatment of complex spinal disorders through clinical outcomes research, large-scale data analysis, and surgical innovation, led by Mohamad Bydon, MD. Spinal Fusion research is lead by Timothy Witham, MD. The Stereotactic and Functional Neurosurgery Section conducts innovative research aimed at advancing the understanding and treatment of neurological and neuropsychiatric disorders. Through clinical trials, outcomes research, advanced imaging, brain mapping, and neuromodulation studies, investigators explore the neural mechanisms underlying disease while developing novel therapeutic approaches to improve patient outcomes, led by Peter Warnke, MD, and David Satzer, MD. The Neurovascular Surgery Section, led by Issam Awad, MD, and Sean Polster, MD, and Ryan Naylor, MD, PhD, conducts innovative research aimed at advancing the understanding, diagnosis, and treatment of complex cerebrovascular diseases. 

Drawing on a longstanding tradition of scientific discovery, investigators pursue basic science, translational, and clinical research to uncover the mechanisms underlying vascular disorders of the brain and spinal cord and develop new therapeutic strategies. Pediatric neurosurgery research within the Department of Neurological Surgery, led by Arthur J. DiPatri, Jr, MD, is dedicated to advancing the understanding and treatment of neurological disorders affecting children through innovative clinical, translational, and collaborative research. Closely aligned with the Margaret Hackett Family Program (MHFP), our faculty and researchers investigate a wide range of pediatric conditions involving the brain, spine, and nervous system, while contributing to multi-institutional research initiatives that expand knowledge of rare and complex disorders. NeuroOncology research within the Department of Neurological Surgery, led by Youssef Comair, MD, and Bakhtiar Yamini, MD, is dedicated to advancing the understanding and treatment of brain tumors through innovative basic, translational, and clinical research. Faculty investigators explore the molecular and cellular mechanisms that drive tumor growth, therapeutic resistance, and interactions with the immune system, while developing novel treatment strategies aimed at improving patient outcomes. The research conducted by the section of Neurosurgical Trauma and Critical Care, led by Paramita Das, MD studies the outcomes after traumatic brain injury and biomarkers of TBI. 

The Surgery Brain Research Institute, an integral part of the medical center which houses the neurosurgical staff offices and Sean Mullan Library and Conference Room, also contains 6,000 square feet of space exclusively developed for neurosurgical research. The Department of Neurological Surgery has a research area that adjoins the clinical area and with the neurosurgical faculty offices, which occupies 24,000 square feet in the Surgery Brain Research Institute. The laboratories are well-equipped for channel studies, microfluorometry, blood flow measurement, cellular neurophysiology, molecular biology, pharmacology, microscopy, biochemistry, tissue culture, histology and animal pathology. Superb operating facilities are available in the building for animal experimentation. Hyde Park Labs, a state-of-the-art advanced sciences building, driven by The University of Chicago’s transformative science, engineering & quantum research, which available to residents as additional research space. 

There are strong ancillary services in neurology, neuropathology, neurophysiology (including electroencephalography and video monitoring) and a sleep laboratory. Three full-time neuroradiologists, trained and experienced in interventional neuroradiology, work closely with the neurosurgical service. There are fourteen Advanced Practice Providers, trained in the management of neuroscience patients, who support both the pediatric and adult services.

There is an active program of neurosurgical education with mandatory resident participation. Each morning, the neurosurgical faculty and other faculty from departments within the University of Chicago are devoted to providing a series of lectures designed to expose the residents to issues related to neurosurgical patient management. Neurosurgical grand rounds are held every Wednesday.

Moreover, residents are exposed to weekly subspecialty conferences, including neuro-oncology, a pediatric neurosciences, vascular, epilepsy and spinal conferences. There are weekly attending rounds and ample opportunity for residents and faculty to interact. We routinely evaluate and update our educational activities. Residents attend subspeciality clinics with faculty. Residents attend the SNS RUNN Course and other national conferences.

There are several national symposia hosted at the University of Chicago, which include: Neuro Innovate Course, Safadi Lecture, Kranzler Chicago Review Course, Neuro Trauma Conference, Stroke Symposium, and the Margaret Hackett Family Program Symposium.
 

The neurological surgery residency program at the University of Chicago is geared towards those who wish to enter a career in academic neurosurgery. Our goal is to educate a group of physician-scientists who will advance the future of academic neurosurgery and make a lasting contribution to the care of adult and pediatric neurosurgical patients. Accordingly, the program offers the opportunity to obtain both outstanding clinical and basic science research experience in an academic medical center located in one of the great American cities.

The residency program at the University of Chicago is structured into a seven-year curriculum. The internship year includes rotations in critical care, trauma, ENT, neuroanesthesia and neurology. Junior level (PGY2-4) rotations include vascular, spine, functional, oncology, and pediatrics. The elective years (PGY5-6) are flexible and designed to support the residents ambitions and future success. All residents are required to complete their PGY-7 chief year. The training provides a progressive increase in skills and responsibility until the resident is ready to become an independent fully trained neurosurgeon.

Currently, the program accepts two new residents each year. As the program is carried out by 15 full-time university neurosurgeons, four affiliated Endeavor Health Evanston Hospital faculty, and several clinical faculty associates, there is a high staff to trainee ratio and the individualized needs of each resident are met. Staff assistance and supervision are available at all times. The attending staff, residents, and advanced practice providers work as a team with mutual responsibility for all phases of patient care. Each patient is provided with equal care and attention.