Highlighting Neurosurgical Advancements Dr. John Parish
Please share the basics of your paper published with funding from the Carolina Neurosurgery & Spine Education & Research Foundation.
We presented a 43-year-old patient with a unique case of a benign tumor (intra-osseous meningioma) that involved the bone surrounding her eye resulting in severe vision loss for over 8 months. An outside institution had recommended radiation (and not surgery) as they felt her vision loss had been present for too long to be recoverable. Dr. Vinay Deshmukh and Dr. Scott Wait performed surgery, and she has had near complete recovery of her vision. How will patient care improve because of your findings? Because of the excellent visual outcome for our patient, our hope is that similar patients in the future will not be refused surgery due to the length of time of vision loss. We also wanted to highlight the fantastic work that the neurosurgeons of Carolina Neurosurgery & Spine Associates do every day for the people in and around Charlotte. What would you like prospective donors to the Foundation to know? The Carolina Neurosurgery & Spine Education and Research Foundation and its donors are partners with the entire Carolina Neurosurgery & Spine Associates team to advance the care of neurosurgical patients not only in the Carolinas but nationally and internationally. Supporting the publication of our fantastic outcomes and advancements in cranial and spinal surgery will save vision and restore quality of life for people. 
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Expanding International Expertise Dr. Tyler Atkins
What has been the most valuable part of your international residency program?
Experiencing the significant differences in delivering health care based on vastly different health systems and hospital structures from physicians trained in countries all around the world. This has shown me that many things we do compared to other countries are simply different. Acknowledging this allows me to see how the narrow interpretation "how things have to work" is often because of historical reasons rather than economics or education. Fundamental medicine never changes - it is the man-made logistics that sometimes make things more challenging than they need to be. What is the most significant thing you learned working with the neurosurgeons at Carolina Neurosurgery & Spine Associates? Once you know what the right thing is to do for a patient, don't let anything stand in your way. Your job is first and foremost to always do what is right by the patient, even if that means ruffling some feathers. That and the simple universal value of Dr. Mark Van Poppel’s "three A's": “You will always serve your patients, colleagues and hospital best if you seek to be Able, Available, and Affable.” From a patient care perspective, what will you bring back to your patients in the United States? I will incorporate surgical techniques from both Switzerland and Australia. Also, I will be able to offer to patients a much wider perspective of treatment possibilities and ideologies. I will be able to honestly state that "I have seen how they treat this problem in Europe, Australia, and one of the top neurosurgical centers in the US, and I can tell you with confidence that I think we are making the best decision regarding your care." What would you like perspective donors to know about the Foundation? The broadest education that a physician can receive will nearly always improve the knowledge and range of what a physician can accomplish and increase the number of problems that he knows how to solve. As a Physician Assistant at Carolina Neurosurgery & Spine Associates PAs told me, "The eyes cannot see what the mind does not know.” I am grateful to the Foundation for investing in my studies so I can be the best neurosurgeon possible. |
