Economics of SRS as an Alternative to Open Surgery

Doug Kondziolka, MD, received his medical degree from the University of Toronto and graduated from the Toronto neurosurgery residency program in 1991. From 1989 to 1991 at the University of Pittsburgh, he completed a master of science program in the Department of Behavioral Neuroscience and a fellowship in stereotactic surgery and radiosurgery. His thesis focused on brain radiobiology.

He joined the University of Pittsburgh in January 1992 and later was named Chief of Stereotactic and Functional Neurosurgery. Dr. Kondziolka served as principal investigator of the first two clinical neurotransplantation trials for the care of patients with stroke and completed a third as co-principal investigator on a study to evaluate bone marrow derived neuroprogenitor cell implantation for stroke. His laboratory and clinical research in stereotactic radiosurgery spans the breadth of indications including benign and malignant tumors, vascular malformations and functional disorders.

In November 2012, Dr. Kondziolka joined the neurosurgery faculty at New York University as Professor and Vice-Chair for Clinical Research. He launched the first global registry platform for neurosurgery that focused initially on the broad array of radiosurgical indications. Current research is on metabolic and vascular effects of brain tumor radiosurgery using novel neuroimaging techniques, brain tumor natural history studies, and clinical registry analytics.

Dr. Kondziolka has published 582 articles in refereed journals, 268 book chapters and/or invited publications, and has edited 8 books. He has completed four randomized controlled trials. He is a two-time recipient of the Stephen Mahaley Award for brain tumor clinical research from the Joint Section on Tumors of the AANS/CNS. He received the Lars Leksell Award from the World Federation of Neurosurgical Societies. In 2004, he was honored as the Penfield Lecturer of the Canadian Neurosurgical Society. In 2006 he received the Robert Florin Award of the American Association of Neurological Surgeons for socio-economic research, and in 2007, the AANS Integra Foundation Award. In 2007 he received the Jacob Fabrikant Award from the International Stereotactic Radiosurgery Society. In 2014 he received the Bernard Sanberg Award for significant research contributions from the American Society for Neural Therapy and Repair. He is a Past-President of the American Society for Stereotactic and Functional Neurosurgery, and Past-President of the International Stereotactic Radiosurgery Society. In 2006-2007, he served as President of the Congress of Neurological Surgeons. He served as neurosurgeon for the Pittsburgh Penguins of the National Hockey League from 2002-2012. He served as co-chair of the editorial board of the Journal of Neurosurgery (2008-2013) and is now Associate Editor. He is President-Elect of the American Academy of Neurological Surgery. From 2014-2020 he served as a Director of the American Board of Neurological Surgery. He has been a visiting professor at the top institutions in the United States and Canada, and has lectured extensively across the world.