Annual Report 2023

From the Chair

Gerald A. Grant, MD
The Allan H. Friedman Distinguished Professor of Neurosurgery
Chair, Duke Department of Neurosurgery
Duke University School of Medicine

When I came to Duke Neurosurgery as chair a little over a year ago, I joined a culture like no other. As a former Duke faculty member, I already knew the department’s strengths in patient-centered care, innovative teaching, and the unique ability to rapidly translate research from bench to bedside. Over the past year, the talent that I have seen among our faculty, APPs, and staff and their desire to push the boundaries of what’s possible is giving me great hope for our future in neurosurgery and beyond.

There is an urgency to advance knowledge at Duke and to offer every patient what they deserve — the highest level of personalized care, the most advanced technology, and the ability to offer an option when patients thought they were out of them. The desire to offer hope.

One of our senior faculty members says that what makes Duke stand out is that we do rare and difficult things frequently, and as a result, become

quite good at them. I agree! We have a team of exceptional neurosurgeons with outstanding technical expertise.

Duke is also unmatched at making discoveries in the laboratory and translating those ideas into clinical trials at Duke. Duke is nimble enough to take great ideas that have promise to impact a patient’s life and move things quickly into the clinic. This, I know, is unmistakably Duke Neurosurgery.

In the future, as in the past year, we will, with this amazing team, continue to add milestones to Duke Neurosurgery’s rich history and elevate the standard of care for our patients.

The Department of Neurosurgery is proud to have 24 research faculty along with 45 clinical faculty who performed about 5,000 procedures in FY 23.

Recent Faculty Honors

ALLAN FRIEDMAN, MD
Cushing Award for Technical Excellence and Innovation in Neurosurgery, 2020

CHRISTOPHER SHAFFREY, MD
Cushing Award for Technical Excellence and Innovation in Neurosurgery, 2022
Board of Directors, Scoliosis Research Society Review Committee, Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education

GERALD GRANT, MD
President, The American Society of Pediatric Neurosurgeons
Editor, The Academy Neurosurgeon (AANS)
Co-Chair, Society of Neurological Surgeons RUNN Course

OREN GOTTFRIED, MD
Co-Chair of the American Spine Registry Data Operations Committee, representing AANS and NeuroPoint Alliance in the ASR partnership

MUSTAFA KHASRAW, MD
Co-Chair of the Society for Neuro-Oncology (SNO) 2022 Conference on CNS Clinical Trials and Brain Metastases

KHOI THAN, MD
Congress of Neurological Surgeons, Member-At-Large; Co-Chair, Development Committee; Chair, Online Education Committee; Chair, Nexus

QUINN OSTROM, PHD, and MARY LOU AFFRONTI, DNP
Board of Directors, Society for Neuro-Oncology

PETER FECCI, MD, PHD, and PATRICK CODD, MD
Inducted into Neurosurgical Society of America

DAVID ASHLEY, MBBS, PHD, and HENRY FRIEDMAN, MD
Participated in the Brain Cancers Forum at the White House Cancer Moonshot

The Duke Department of Neurosurgery is actively involved in clinical research to improve treatment options for patients at Duke and around the world. In July 2023, active protocols included 24 interventional trials, 4 retro/prospective, 8 observational, 8 basic science, and 1 qualitative.

Funding

Ranking by NIH Funding: Principal Investigators,
Departments of Neurosurgery

Duke Neurosurgery Investigator / Rank

John Sampson, MD, PhD /  1
David Hasan, MD /  21
David Ashley, MBBS, PhD /  46
Vidya Chandramohan, PhD / 188
Anthony Filiano, PhD /  191
Matthias Gromeier, MD /  214
Patrick Codd, MD /  230
Matthew Waitkus, PhD / 256
Anthony Fuller, MD /  257

Philanthropy

$13.1 million

in new commitments of private support

$6 million

in commitments for research in the area of low-grade glioma and to support a collaborative investigation between Duke University, the University of California San Francisco, and other academic centers