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FROM THE CHAIRMAN
Welcome to the Department of Neurological Surgery at UCI!
Our first
two newsletters were extremely well
received throughout the Medical
Center, School of Medicine, and our
community at large. We have
received very positive feedback from
many of our current and former
patients and their families. We are
extremely grateful for the generous
donations that we have received,
which are helping us establish the
funds necessary to create a first-class
neurosurgery research effort as well
as re-establish our residency training
program.
The department continues to move forward with our faculty recruiting efforts as well as departmental growth. I am happy to report that between April and June 2006 we have successfully concluded the recruitment of three new faculty members, bringing our total number of full-time faculty up to five neurosurgeons and two Ph.D. researchers. The biographies and interests of Burak Ozgur, M.D., Devin Binder, M.D., Ph.D., as well as Yi-Hong Zhou, Ph.D. are listed in the "Meet Our Faculty" section of this newsletter. They are faculty of the highest academic quality with very desirable and complimentary subspecialty training and experience, and we are extremely excited about their arrival.
At this stage in our development, we are nearly finished with completing seven multidisciplinary clinical neuroscience programs as part of our Neuroscience Center of Excellence at UCI. Only a few remaining non-neurosurgical recruitments remain outstanding. These include: Stroke and Cerebrovascular Program; Multidisciplinary Neuro-Oncology Program, Multidisciplinary Spine Program; Epilepsy Program; Normal Pressure Hydrocephalus Program; Movement Disorder Program; and Neurotrauma and Critical Care Service.
Along with the non-surgical Brain Aging and Dementia and Neuro- Muscular multidisciplinary programs led by our colleagues in the Department of Neurology, we our now up to nine coordinated and integrated multidisciplinary clinical neuroscience programs at UCI.
On May 20, the UCI Spine Program "kicked off" with a symposium held at the Beckman Conference Center on the UCI campus. The symposium was well-attended across medical disciplines. The symposium featured Dr. Richard Fessler, Chairman of Neurosurgery at the University of Chicago and a national expert on spine surgery and artificial disc technology as our Third Annual John A. Kusske Lecturer. Hans Keirstead, Ph.D. from the Reeve-Irvine Research Center updated us on the basic science and stem cell research progress for spinal cord injury patients. Our next John A. Kusske lecture and related symposium will be held May 19, 2007 at the Beckman Conference Center. The topic of the presentation is under consideration. Please mark your calendars early and plan to join us.
The installation of Orange County's first magnetic resonance imaging scanner (MRI), for use in the operating room, is now being done at UCIMC. We anticipate completion and readiness for patient use by the end of September 2006. This latest addition to UCIMC is expected to have significant impact in improving the care, safety, and clinical outcomes of Orange County patients with brain tumors, pituitary tumors, and epilepsy. Please refer to the article on intraoperative MR scanning in this issue of our newsletter for more information.
Our goal is to establish and solidify our position as the only academic neurosurgery service in Orange County. We aim to be the primary Orange County site for advanced neurosurgery patient care, as well as the principal Orange County site for neurosurgery clinical outcomes studies, clinical trials, and translational neuroscience research. We intend to establish a top-tier neurosurgery training program, and to be the preferred regional site for neurosurgery continuing medical education. With the ongoing support of our administrative leadership, along with support from our referring physicians, private industry, and the community, we are well on our way. Because of the enthusiastic efforts of our faculty, we continue to make measurable progress towards achieving these goals.
Mark E. Linskey, M.D.
Associate Professor & Chairman
Department of Neurological Surgery
University of California, Irvine
Email: mlinskey@uci.edu
