Theresa Pazionis, MD, is an orthopedic and spine surgeon and an assistant professor of orthopedics and sports medicine at Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University in Philadelphia.
When Dr. Pazionis joined Temple University Hospital as a spine surgeon in March 2024, she became the first and only female spine surgeon in Temple’s history.
She joined the system at just 38 years old, after starting college at the age of 13, where she specialized in both orthopedics and spinal oncology.
Now, she specializes in a broad array of orthopedic surgical procedures at Temple, including spinal deformity correction, degenerative scoliosis, cervical spine, lumbar spine fusion, minimally invasive procedures and microdiscectomy.
Dr. Pazionis recently connected with Becker’s to discuss her work in 3D-printed spinal devices and how AI can be used for preoperative planning and predictive modeling.
“When I began practicing in 2014, spine surgery relied heavily on freehand screw placement with minimal navigation. We were templating spine surgeries on paper or early versions of surgimap, which gave us great outcomes but did not have the level of integration and consistency we see with robotic planning platforms today,” Dr. Pazionis told Becker’s.
“Over time, we’ve integrated AI and robotics into preoperative planning, using systems like the Globus robot, which integrates with surgimap, Medtronic AiBLE, Mazor, UNiD adaptive spine intelligence and patient-specific rod and Aprevo’s personalized interbody implants. These technologies enable us to map surgical goals with high precision, optimize screw placement and design patient-specific implants, resulting in more consistent outcomes, fewer complications and improved correction accuracy compared to traditional methods. We are also able to track patient and surgeon specific outcomes using radiomics (data extraction from serial radiographs) to use predictive analytics to better plan and personalize surgical plans for our patients,” she said.
Dr. Pazionis is speaking at Becker’s 22nd Annual Spine, Orthopedic and Pain Management-Driven ASC + The Future of Spine Conference, set for June 19-21 at the Swissotel Chicago.
