As Director of Neurotrauma at North Shore University Hospital, Jamie S. Ullman, MD, FACS, FAANS joined Northwell Health in 2013. Following her residency at Mount Sinai, she went on to complete two fellowships: one in traumatic brain injury and the other in neurocritical care. Dr. Ullman has helped spearhead the Northwell Health Concussion Program and holds numerous memberships on respected committees.
She served as Vice President of the Congress of Neurological Surgeons and Chair of the AANS/CNS Section on Neurotrauma and Critical Care. She is a co-author of third and fourth editions of the Brain Trauma Foundation Guidelines for the Management of Severe Traumatic Brain Injury, as well as co-editor of Atlas of Emergency Neurosurgery.
Zachary L. Hickman, MD, is a board-certified neurosurgeon and Assistant Professor of Neurosurgery in the Department of Neurosurgery at the Mount Sinai Health System and Director of the Neurosurgery Department at Elmhurst Hospital Center in Queens, New York.
Dr. Hickman completed a post-graduate fellowship in neurotrauma and neurocritical care at Jackson Memorial Hospital and Ryder Trauma Center at the University of Miami Medical Center, under the directorship of M. Ross Bullock, MD, PhD. Dr. Hickman obtained his MD at Columbia University College of Physicians & Surgeons in New York City and completed his neurosurgery residency at NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia University Medical Center.
Dr. Hickman’s clinical and research interests include traumatic brain and spine injury, neurosurgical emergencies and neurocritical care, intracranial multimodality monitoring, patient-oriented outcomes research, international neurosurgery, and quality improvement.
Dr. Hickman has been published in a variety of scholarly peer-reviewed journals including the Journal of Neurosurgery, Neurosurgery, Neurocritical Care, Journal of Neurology Neurosurgery and Psychiatry, Journal of Cerebral Blood Flow and Metabolism, and Stroke.
Professor
Director, Brain Injury Research Center
Department of Rehabilitation Medicine
Department of Neurology
Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
Dr. Dams-O’Connor is Director of the Brain Injury Research Center of Mount Sinai, a clinical neuropsychologist and Professor in the Departments of Rehabilitation Medicine and Neurology at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York, NY.
She completed a postdoctoral fellowship in clinical neuropsychology at Mount Sinai Medical Center, and a predoctoral internship in neurorehabilitation at the Rusk Institute of Rehabilitation Medicine at New York University Medical Center. She received her Ph.D. from the University at Albany.
She has published over 100 peer-reviewed manuscripts and chapters on traumatic brain injury treatments and outcomes, and has presented her research internationally. Her primary fields of clinical and research expertise are in long-term outcomes after brain injury, intersections of TBI and neurodegenerative disease, neuropsychological assessment, and cognitive rehabilitation for individuals with neurological diseases.
Dr. Dams-O’Connor sees patients in the Rehabilitation Neuropsychology Faculty Practice (212-241-2221) for neuropsychological assessment and neurocognitive remediation. She is also Director of the New York Traumatic Brain Injury Model System of Care and a Founding Board Member of the New York Neurotrauma Consortium. Under her leadership, the Brain Injury Research Center (www.tbicentral.org) develops and tests new treatments for TBI, investigates long-term health and functional TBI outcomes, and studies the mechanism and pathology of post-traumatic neurodegeneration and its relationships with Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias (ADRDs).
Current projects focus on applying modern psychometric and statistical techniques to measure individual differences in trajectories of change over time among survivors of TBI. Her research is currently supported by federal grants from the National Institutes of Health, National Institutefor Disability and Rehabilitation Research, Patient Centered Outcomes Research Institute, and Department of Defense.
Neha S. Dangayach MD, MSCR is an Assistant Professor of Neurology and Neurosurgery. Dr. Dangayach serves as the Director of Neuroemergencies Management and Transfers (NEMAT) for the Mount Sinai Health System, Neurocritical Care Fellowship Director and Research Co-Director for the Institute for Critical Care Medicine (ICCM). She is also a Co-Director of the Mount Sinai Hospital’s busy NSICU and collaborates with a compassionate team to provide world-class patient-centered Neurocritical Care. She leads the Mount Sinai Critical Care Resilience Program (MSCCRP), a multidisciplinary program including intensivists, nursing, social workers, physical, occupation and speech therapists, chaplains, nutritionists among others. Several projects under this program seek to help patients and families cope with ICU recovery. Her research focuses on resilience, spirituality and recovery in critical care; inter-hospital transfers for neuroemergencies and social media in medicine.
Dr. Dangayach specializes in the management of critically-ill neurological and neurosurgical patients diagnosed with:
Coma
Acute Ischemic Stroke, Intracerebral Hemorrhage, Subarachnoid Hemorrhage
Neuroinfectious Processes such Meningitis and Meningoencephalitis
Status Epilepticus
Neuromuscular Emergencies
Fulminant Hepatic Failure
Follow Dr. Dangayach on Twitter: @drdangayach
Dr. Dangayach graduated from one of the top medical schools in India, Seth G.S. Medical College in Mumbai (2007). She trained in Neurology at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio (2012) followed by a clinical fellowship in Neurocritical Care at Columbia and Cornell Universities, both in New York (2014).
As the Director for NEMAT, Dr. Dangayach has established a program for neuroemergencies based on the principles of patient-centered care, standardized workflow, and high fidelity triage to ensure the right care for the right patient at the right time every single time throughout the Mount Sinai Health System and beyond. NEMAT is an important component of the Department of Neurosurgery’s commitment to patient safety, quality assurance and performance improvement.
Passionate about teaching, mentoring, and education, Dr. Dangayach is involved in several educational programs for medical students, residents, fellows, nurse practitioners, and nurses. She was awarded the Tauba Pasik Award for Teaching Excellence in Neurosciences by the Department of Neurology at Mount Sinai Health System in 2017. She was awarded the Neuroscience Physician of the Year for Mount Sinai Hospital in 2019.
As the Director of the Neurocritical Care Fellowship program with interdisciplinary collaboration from Neurosurgery, Neurology, and the Institute for Critical Care Medicine, Dr. Dangayach’s goal is to create a well-rounded thriving program that will train leading neurointensivists of the future.
Dr. Dangayach is an advocate for patient-centered care, collaborative success, positive thinking and social media in medicine. She serves on the Social Media Committee of the Society of Critical Care Medicine (SCCM) and the Social Media Working Group of the American College of Chest Physicians (ACCP). She has been invited as a panelist and speaker at the annual meetings of the Neurocritical care society (NCS), Society of Vascular Interventional Neurology (SVIN), SCCM and American Association of Critical Care Nurses (AACN), and American Academy of Neurology (AAN), among others. Dr. Dangayach is a member of several professional societies and a reviewer for several journals, including Critical Care Medicine, Intensive Care Medicine, Neurocritical care, the Journal of Neurological Sciences, the Journal of Neurosurgical Anesthesiology, BMC Medical Education, BMC Neurology, and Journal of Palliative Care Medicine. She has published over 50 peer-reviewed articles and several book chapters and is a co-editor for a textbook on neuro-prognostication in critical care. For a full list of Dr. Dangayach’s publications, visit https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=pVAxIRYAAAAJ&hl=en
In her role as ICCM Research Co-Director, Dr. Dangayach has established inter-departmental and multi-institutional collaborations for outcomes in research and clinical trials. She is the site PI for the SCCM’s THRIVE initiative and Post-ICU recovery clinic project.
Konstantinos Margetis, MD, PhD, is an Assistant Professor of Neurosurgery in the Department of Neurosurgery at the Mount Sinai Health System. He is the Chief of Neurosurgery at Mount Sinai Morningside, a trauma center verified by the American College of Surgeons.
Dr. Margetis is a uniquely qualified neurosurgeon with dual postgraduate fellowships in Complex Spine Surgery from The Cleveland Clinic in Ohio and in Pediatric Neurosurgery from Weill Cornell Medical College in New York. Dr. Margetis obtained his medical degree at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki Medical School in Greece. At the University of Athens, also in Greece, he earned his PhD for research related to the effects of Intrathecal Baclofen Therapy on the Central Nervous System and completed his Neurosurgery residency. He is a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons and the Royal College of Surgeons of England. He holds a Masters Certificate in Health Care Leadership from Cornell University. Dr. Margetis has been published in a variety of scholarly journals including the Journal of Neurosurgery, World Neurosurgery, Neuromodulation, and the Journal of Clinical Psychopharmacology.
Dr. Margetis practices general neurosurgery and complex spine surgery at The Mount Sinai Hospital and Mount Sinai Morningside in Manhattan, New York.
Kirk Lercher, MD, FAAPMR is the Medical Director of the brain injury medicine for the Department of Rehabilitation and Human Performance and the Fellowship Director of the Brain Injury Medicine fellowship at The Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York, New York. Prior to joining Mount Sinai Hospital in 2013, Dr. Lercher completed his residency training in Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at Kessler Institute for Rehabilitation in West Orange, New Jersey and fellowship in traumatic brain injury rehabilitation at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.
He is dual board certified in both Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation and Brain Injury Medicine. Clinically, his interests the management of all levels of brain injury from concussion to patients with severe traumatic brain injury and disorders consciousness with the goal of optimizing the care and maximizing improvements in the quality of life for these patients and their caregivers. Academically he is involved with education and administration of graduate medical education of students, residents and fellows. He has contributed to multiple book chapters and has been an invited speaker at regional and national conferences. He has multiple research and quality improvement projects and serves as the sepsis quality improvement rehabilitation representative at Mount Sinai Hospital.
Professor and Chairman
Department of Neurosurgery and
Director, Northwell Institute of Neurology and Neurosurgery
Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell
Raj K. Narayan, MD, is a renowned neurosurgeon who serves as the senior vice president, professor and chair of the Department of Neurosurgery, and executive director of the Institute for Neurology and Neurosurgery at Northwell Health. He leads a world-class neurosurgical team and has more than 35 years of specialized expertise in cranial and spinal neurosurgery, traumatic brain injury and brain tumors. He is a nationally recognized leader in neurosurgery and has been the chair of three major neurosurgical programs.
Well known for his research in traumatic brain injury, Dr. Narayan has published more than 130 peer-reviewed scientific papers and 64 book chapters, and has co-edited Neurotrauma a major reference textbook on head and spinal injury. He also helped develop the Guidelines for the Management of Severe Traumatic Brain Injury which have been adopted both nationally and internationally.
As professor and chair of neurosurgery at the Donald and Barbara Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell, Dr. Narayan is committed to training the next generation of neurosurgeons. He spearheads one of the largest and most sought-after neurosurgical residency programs in the country, and has been involved in training more than 85 residents many of whom now hold major academic positions. He is passionate about passing his knowledge on to other medical professionals and has been invited to give numerous lectures worldwide.
When it comes to delivering the best neurosurgical care, Dr. Narayan takes a conservative approach, and recommends surgical intervention only when it is absolutely necessary. He also spends time with his patients and their families to explain complex conditions, treatments and procedures simply and with clarity.
Throughout his many years in practice, Dr. Narayan has received numerous awards and recognitions. He has been continuously listed in the Best Doctors in America for many years. He also received the William Fields Caveness Award and the Champion of Hope Award from the Brain Injury Association.
Dr. Narayan obtained his medical education at the Christian Medical College in Vellore, India, and his neurosurgery residency at the Medical College of Virginia. He then completed a fellowship at the National Institutes of Health. Prior to arriving at Northwell, he served on the faculty at Baylor College of Medicine and as Chair of Neurosurgery at Temple University and the University of Cincinnati. He is certified by and has served as an examiner for the American Board of Neurological Surgery.
Dr. Narayan is a member of several prestigious national committees including the Society of Neurological Surgeons, the Academy of Neurological Surgeons and the American Association of Neurological Surgeons. He is also a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons. He is currently the president of the New York Society of Neurosurgery.
Professor
Director, Neurotrauma Clinical Trials Center
Director, Scoliosis and Spinal Deformity Program
Special Advisor, UPMC Enterprises
Dr. David Okonkwo is Professor of Neurological Surgery and Director of the Neurotrauma Clinical Trials Center (NCTC) in the School of Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh. He serves as Director of Neurotrauma and of the Scoliosis and Spinal Deformity Program at UPMC. Dr. Okonkwo is also a member of the Medical Staff for the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Shaun D. Rodgers, MD, FAANS, FAAP, FACS is a member of the Division of Pediatric Neurosurgery at the Steven and Alexandra Cohen Children’s Medical Center of New York. He is the Director of Pediatric Surgical Epilepsy. Dr. Rodgers has speared headed the development of a premier stereotactic EEG program. He has utilized state of the art technology, such as the ROSA Robot, to provide minimally invasive care for epilepsy patients. He has implanted Responsive Neurostimulators, a ground breaking technology, to care for the most complex patients. Dr. Rodgers is board certified in adult and pediatric neurosurgery.
Dr. Rodgers completed his residency at NYU Langone Medical Center, and spent a chief residency year at the Manhattan Veterans Hospital and Bellevue Hospital. In addition to comprehensive neurosurgical training, he spent time focused on skull base surgery and pediatric spinal deformity while at NYU. He also received training in neuro- modulation that included vagal nerve stimulation and auditory brainstem implantation. He completed a fellowship in pediatric neurosurgery at the Ann and Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago affiliated with Northwestern University Medical Center. Dr. Rodgers graduated cum laude from Georgetown University Medical School.
Dr. Rodgers has extensive specialty training in pediatric tumors, epilepsy, and spine surgery including scoliosis. He also has made multiple contributions to the neurosurgery literature with a research focus on pediatric brain tumors, epilepsy, and pediatric spine surgery. His clinical interests include brain tumors, epilepsy, spinal deformity, craniosynostosis, chiari malformation, endonasal endoscopic skull base surgery, tethered cord, spasticity, brachial plexus, and hydrocephalus.
In addition to Dr. Rodgers’ pediatric experience, his adult neurosurgery background allows us continue transitional neurosurgery initiatives at LIJ Medical Center.
Dr. Rodgers is a native of the tristate area, and currently lives locally with his wife and three young children. His goal is to provide exceptional and compassionate clinical care to all his patients, from the routine to the most complex.
Chief of Service
Department of Neurosurgery
NYC Health + Hospitals/Kings
Brooklyn, NY
Clinical Associate Professor of Neurology
SUNY-Downstate Medical Center
Brooklyn, NY
Ali Sadr, MD, is a board-certified neurosurgeon and the Chief of Service at Kings County Hospital Center in Brooklyn. He is also the Clinical Associate Professor of Neurology at SUNY-Downstate Medical Center in Brooklyn.
Dr. Sadr obtained his medical degree from Boston University School of Medicine where he was elected to the Alpha Omega Alpha National Honor Society. He completed his neurosurgical residency training at West Virginia University Hospitals. He also holds a certification in Neurocritical Care by United Council for Neurologic Subspecialties.
Dr. Sadr joined Kings County Hospital Center and SUNY-Downstate Medical Center in 2003 and has been the Chief of Neurosurgery at Kings County Hospital Center since 2009. His clinical practice includes neurotrauma, neurocritical care, skull base surgery, and general spine surgery.
Director, Center for Neurocritical Care
Northwell Health System
Dr. Temes received his medical degree at the University of Kansas and has completed residencies in both Neurology and Internal Medicine at the Medical College of Wisconsin. Following his residency training, he completed fellowships in both neurocritical care and vascular neurology at Columbia-Presbyterian Hospital. During his fellowship training, Dr. Temes was awarded a prestigious research training grant through the National Institutes of Health. This grant served to support his master’s degree in epidemiology from Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health and his early interest in aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage. As a result of his research, Dr. Temes was awarded the Young investigator of the Year by the Neurocritical Care Society in 2005.
Following the completion of his fellowship, Dr. Temes served as the founding Director of Neurocritical Care in 2007 at Rush University Medical Center. Since joining Northwell in 2014, he has expanded neurocritical care services throughout the health system. At the institutional level, he has worked to improve upon barriers in communication and the successful navigation between transitions in care through the creation of ICU specific policies and clinical pathways, integration of daily multidisciplinary rounding with Glen Cove Rehabilitation, palliative care, and social work, and the implementation of a neurohospitalist service through a partnership with hospitalist medicine.
At the organizational level, Dr Temes has developed neurocritcal care programs at Lenox Hill and Southside Hospitals through the recruitment of a diverse faculty, many of whom were fellowship trained at Northwell. He has forged partnerships with both telehealth and neurology to implement the first tele-neurocritical care program in the region as well as a system-wide centralized telestroke program. In addition to his administrative duties, he has expanded neurocritical care research by both serving on the IRB and now as Northwell’s PI of StrokeNet, a large NIH funded network of hospitals that conduct clinical trials to advance acute stroke treatment, prevention and recovery.
D Roxanne Todor, MD, FAANS, FACS is the Director of Neurosurgery at Jacobi Medical Center. Dr. Todor completed a fellowship in cerebrovascular surgery at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation after completing Neurosurgical Residency at New York Medical College. She obtained her MD at SUNY Downstate Medical Center where she also completed 2 years of general surgical residency.
Dr Todor’s clinical and research interests focus on neurotrauma, especially moderate and severe traumatic brain injury in adults and children. She is part of a multidisciplinary team that manages craniofacial trauma and activity participates in quality improvement. She actively participates in neurotrauma education and has presented at local and national conferences.
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