BROADWATER - Key Persons
Dr. Ames is the director of spinal deformity and spine tumor surgery and co-director of the combined high risk spine service, the Neurospinal Disorders Program, and the UCSF Spine Center. He is board certified in neurosurgery. He was named to the 2015 and 2016 Top Doctors lists in San Francisco Magazine, and among America's Top Doctors for both neurosurgery and cancer from 2010 to 2016. His tumor practice focuses on en bloc tumor resection for chordoma, chondrosarcoma, giant cell tumor, soft tissue sarcoma, sacral tumors, and other primary and metastatic tumors. While at UCSF, Dr. Ames developed and published the transpedicular approach to previously unresectable cervical and cervical thoracic tumors. Dr. Ames serves as the UCSF site director for the International Spinal Deformity Study Group and the AO Scoli-Risk Study. He also directs the neurosurgical spinal deformity service, which performs over 200 cases per year for correction of scoliosis, kyphosis, flat back, and chin-on-chest deformity in ankylosing spondylitis. His research work in spinal deformity has won the prestigious Hibbs award, as well as the Moe award, the Goldstein award, and Whitecloud awards from the Scoliosis Research Society. Dr Ames developed and published the first ever classification for cervical spine deformity and cervical osteotomy with the international spine study group.
Job Titles:
- Assistant Professor
- Physician
Dr. Lisa McLeod is Assistant Professor and Attending Physician in Pediatric Hospital Medicine and the Fellowship Director at the Children's Hospital of Colorado (CHCO) Section of Hospital Medicine.
As a clinical epidemiologist, Dr. McLeod's career has been dedicated towards evaluating the impact of systems- and organizational-level factors on the safety and value of the inpatient care provided by hospitalists.
As an expert in improvement science, her ongoing studies are related to the prevention of surgical site infections (SSIs) in children undergoing complex spinal procedures. She has been awarded funding through a Patient Centered Outcomes Research K99/R00 award from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) to study the organizational barriers and facilitators to effective interventions for SSI prevention in this population.
She is a former member of the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) Center for Pediatric Clinical Effectiveness (CPCE) and current faculty member at the University of Colorado Adult and Child Center for Outcomes Research and Delivery Science (ACCORDS). Dr. McLeod has expertise in quantitative and qualitative research and has published several manuscripts related surgical outcomes improvement.
She also co-leads the CHCO orthopedic spine quality improvement team and has been involved with national-level surgical outcomes research and performance improvement through CHOP, CHCO, the Pediatric Orthopedic Society of North America (POSNA), and as research chair of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) Surgical Co-management Subcommittee.
Dr. McLeod received her Doctor of Medicine from Harvard Medical School and conducted her clinical training as an Intern in Pediatrics at Massachusetts General Hospital and as a Resident and Fellow in Pediatrics at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. She received a Master of Science in Clinical Epidemiology from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and Certificate in Healthcare Quality, Safety, and Efficiency from the University of Colorado School of Medicine.
Job Titles:
- Chairman
- Director of the Pediatric Orthopaedic Research Group
Dr. Michael G. Vitale is the Ana Lucia Professor of Pediatric Orthopaedic Surgery at Columbia University Medical Center, and Director of the Division of Pediatric Orthopaedic Surgery and the Chief of the Pediatric Spine and Scoliosis Service at Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital of New York-Presbyterian.
Dr. Vitale serves as the director of the Pediatric Orthopaedic Research Group, and has over 100 peer reviewed research publications in the field of pediatric orthopaedics, including a number of efforts leading national guidelines aimed at improving quality and safety of pediatric spine surgery.
Dr. Vitale also serves numerous roles in the national governance of the field-currently serving on the Board of Directors of the Pediatric Orthopaedic Society of North America, chairing the International Pediatric Orthopaedic Society, leading the efforts of the Scoliosis Research Society on Advocacy for Unmet Needs of Children for Pediatric Medical Devices, serving on the Executive Committee of the Children's Spine Study Group, and is a Member of the International Pediatric Orthopaedic Think Tank.
Dr. Vitale has a long career in the area of Quality Improvement, leading the research arm of the Pediatric Orthopaedic Society of North America's Committee on Quality, Safety, and Value, serving as the Medical Director of New York Presbyterian's Initiative to Make Care Better, and serving as the Chief Quality Officer of the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery at Columbia University Medical Center. His worked has informed the development of commercial pay-for-performance initiatives and best practice guidelines in spine surgery.
Dr. Vitale received his Masters of Public Health from Columbia University Joseph Mailman School of Public Health. He received his Doctor of Medicine from the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Columbia University, which was followed by a residency in Orthopaedic Surgery at Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center and a one year fellowship at the Children's Hospital of Los Angeles in University of Southern California.
Dr. Vitale is an avid skier, marathon runner, and recreational triathlete. Most of all, he enjoys spending time with his wife and four sons.
Dr. Michael Wang was born in Scottsdale, Arizona and spent his childhood in Atlanta, Georgia. He then attended Stanford University in Palo Alto, California where received both his B.S. and M.D. degrees. He completed his residency at the University of Southern California/LA County general Hospital and went on to become the Spine Program Director and Spine Fellowship Director at the USC. In 2007 he moved to South Florida and currently serves as a Professor in the Departments of Neurological Surgery and Rehabilitation Medicine at the University of Miami, Miller School of Medicine. He was elected to the AANS Young Neurosurgeons Executive Committee in 2003, and in the AANS he has served as Local Host for the 2010 Annual Meeting, on the Member Benefits Committee, the Joint Sponsorship Committee, the AANS Development Committee, and the International Committee. In the AANS/CNS Joint Section on Disorders of the Spine & Peripheral Nerves he has served as Chair of the Publications, Education, Fellowship, and Exhibits Committees and is the current Scientific Program Chair. He is also the Membership Chair and Public Relations Chair of the Congress of Neurosurgeons.
Job Titles:
- Chairman of the Neuroscience Institute
Dr. Rajiv Sethi is the Chair of the Neuroscience Institute, Director of Spine Research, and Director of Complex Spine Surgery at the Virginia Mason Medical Center in Seattle, Washington. He is also a clinical professor at the University of Washington specializing in health services research in the Program of Health Economics and Outcomes Methodology
Dr. Sethi's strategic and operational leadership has led the Spine Surgery field in quality improvement, including the development of the Virginia Mason Complex Spine Care Pathway, which was awarded the 2014 Mary L McClinton Patient Safety Award, and the Seattle Spine Team Approach. Innovations that have been recognized by the Whitecloud Award by the SRS for best research paper have included a systems-based approach to perioperative care, screening patients using multidisciplinary indication conferences, and a dual surgeon approach for complex spine surgery.
His work on the Seattle Spine Team approach and the use of the Toyota Production System to model safety and appropriateness in spine care has led to the commercial development of Spine Surgery Centers of Excellence with major employers and American purchasers of health care.
A Fulbright Scholar, Dr. Sethi attended Harvard Medical School in Boston and completed his training both in the Harvard Combined Orthopaedic Program in Boston and at the University of California at San Francisco.
Dr. Todd Albert serves as the Surgeon in Chief and Medical Director and the Korein-Wilson Professor of Orthopedic Surgery at the world renowned Hospital for Special Surgery in New York. In addition, Dr. Albert serves as the Chairman and Professor of Orthopedic Surgery at Weill Cornell Medical College. Dr. Albert sits on a variety of boards and is currently serving as the Vice President of the Scoliosis Research Society. Clinically, Dr. Albert specializes in the diagnosis and surgical treatment of spinal disorders. His areas of interest and expertise include surgery of the cervical spine, cervical deformity, lumbar disc herniation and lumbar spondylolisthesis. Dr. Albert is an expert in minimally invasive surgeries, motion preserving surgeries (such as cervical disc replacement) and traumatic injuries of the cervical and lumbar spine. Prior to accepting his current position as the Surgeon in Chief, Dr. Albert served as the President of the prestigious Rothman Institute in Philadelphia. During his time there Dr. Albert served as the Richard H. Rothman Professor and Chairman of Orthopedic Surgery and the James Edwards Professor and Chairman of Orthopedics at Thomas Jefferson University. Dr. Albert graduated Magna Cum Laude with a BA in Neuroscience from Amherst College in 1983. He then completed his medical training at the University of Virginia School of Medicine in 1987. Dr. Albert was chosen to complete an Internship in Surgery at Pennsylvania Hospital and then a Residency in Orthopedic Surgery at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital. Finally, Dr. Albert completed his Fellowship training in spine surgery at the Minnesota Spine Center in 1993.
Job Titles:
- Quality Officer for the Department of Orthopedic Surgery at Columbia University Medical Center
Kevin Wang is the quality officer for the Department of Orthopedic Surgery at Columbia University Medical Center. His expertise includes the use of improvement science to drive change management, process improvement, and deliver better outcomes around quality, safety, and value. Kevin has experience around designing commercial quality-based programs with major insurers, including bundled payments and pay-for-performance initiatives.
Before joining the department, he previously held roles at New York-Presbyterian Morgan-Stanley Children's Hospital of New York, worked at the World Health Organization on implementation of the safe childbirth checklist, and conducted health services research at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
Kevin received his Bachelor of Arts in public health studies from Johns Hopkins University and Master of Health Administration from the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health. He holds a certificate in Leading High Performance Teams from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.
Mark Weidenbaum, MD, treats a broad range of spinal disorders in adults and children, including deformities, arthritis, trauma, tumors, instability, and degenerative conditions. His surgical procedures range from minimally invasive, microsurgical approaches to complex spinal reconstructions. Dr. Weidenbaum is active in basic science as well as clinical research and has published numerous scientific articles in peer-reviewed journals. He is particularly interested in spinal deformity and degeneration and travels regularly to participate in scientific exchanges and care for patients with challenging conditions. Dr. Weidenbaum holds leadership roles in national and international spine surgery organizations.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Spine Hospital at the Neurological Institute of New York
Dr. Angevine is a member of The Spine Hospital at The Neurological Institute of New York. He has received specialized fellowship training in the evaluation and treatment of pediatric and adult spinal deformities. Dr. Angevine became the first neurosurgeon to be admitted to and complete the prestigious fellowship in spine surgery at the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery at Washington University in St. Louis emphasizing the operative treatment of complex spinal deformities. Dr. Angevine's special interests include Adult & Pediatric Spinal Deformities, Neuromuscular Spinal Deformities, Complex Revision Spinal Surgery and Global & Regional Sagittal Imbalance.
Dr. Whang is an Associate Professor in the Yale Department of Orthopaedics and Rehabilitation. He received his undergraduate degree in biochemistry from Harvard University and his medical degree from the Duke University School of Medicine. He completed his residency in orthopaedic surgery at the University of California, Los Angeles and received specialized fellowship training in orthopaedic and neurosurgical spinal surgery at the Rothman Institute at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia, PA. Dr. Whang is a fellowship-trained surgeon who specializes in treating diseases of the cervical, thoracic and lumbar regions of the spine including the following pathologic conditions: neck and arm pain/numbness/weakness, lower back and leg pain/numbness/weakness (sciatica), spondylosis (degenerative arthritis), inflammatory arthritis, degenerative disc disease, disc herniations, spinal stenosis, spinal fractures, cervical whiplash, osteoporosis/compression fractures, spinal deformities, scoliosis (adult and adolescent), spondylolysis (pars defects)/spondylolisthesis, spinal tumors, and spinal infections. Dr. Whang is particularly interested in novel spinal technologies including minimally invasive surgeries and motion-sparing/nonfusion procedures.
Job Titles:
- Founder and Chief Executive Officer of North Star Health Care Consulting
Stephen L. Ondra, MD is the founder and Chief Executive Officer of North Star Health Care Consulting. An internationally known neurosurgeon and neuroscientist, Dr. Ondra has also served in some of the most senior positions in the Federal government, having an integral role in health reform efforts and the implementation of the Affordable Care Act.
Dr. Ondra was the Senior Vice President and Chief Medical Officer of Health Care Service Corporation (HCSC), the nation's fourth largest healthcare insurance company. At HCSC, he led medical management, pharmacy, medical policy, quality improvement, healthcare analytics, strategic clinical communications and performance measurement programs
Prior to HCSC, Ondra was Senior Vice President and Chief Medical Officer of Northwestern Memorial Hospital. He also served as the interim Chair for the Department of Neurological Surgery at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. As a neurological spine surgeon, he received major grants from the Department of Defense and chaired the Medical Device and Technology Committee at Northwestern Memorial Hospital.
Dr. Ondra was a member of President Barack Obama's Administration. He was appointed as Senior Health Policy Advisor for the Secretary of Veterans Affairs on May 10, 2009. In 2010, he was assigned to the Executive Office of the President and served in the Office of Science and Technology Policy, as the health information technology co-Chair of the National Science and Technology Council.