Stephen C. Harward, MD, PhD, will join the faculty of Duke Neurosurgery effective July 1, 2023.
Harward completed both his residency in neurosurgery and a fellowship in functional and epilepsy surgery at Duke. His practice will focus on the surgical treatment for movement disorders (Parkinson’s disease, essential tremor, and dystonia), epilepsy, chronic pain, spinal cord injury, diabetic neuropathy, and neuropsychiatric disease (OCD and depression). Surgical therapies he will offer for these pathologies include deep brain stimulation (DBS), vagal nerve stimulation (VNS), focused ultrasound (HIFU), responsive neural stimulation (RNS), spinal cord stimulation, laser interstitial thermal therapy (LITT), and surgical resection of pathologic tissue.
His academic interests focus on understanding the cells and circuits responsible for epilepsy and neuropsychiatric disease and then utilizing this knowledge to develop novel surgical therapies and neuromodulatory approaches. He is particularly interested in developing new ways for utilizing focused ultrasound to treat these diseases. He is a member of both the Congress of Neurological Surgeons and the American Epilepsy Society.