Arya Nick Shamie, MD, is chief of orthopedic spine surgery as well as an associate professor of orthopedic surgery and neurosurgery at University of California Los Angeles School of Medicine. He also serves as director of quality and compliance at UCLA's department of orthopedic surgery. He is a past president of the American College of Spine Surgeons and currently serves on its board of directors. He is a member of the AO North America, Scoliosis Research Society and American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgery.
Dr. Shamie has a clinical interest in ankylosing spondylitis, artificial disc, spinal cord injury, spinal infections, spinal tumors,sciatica, scoliosis, kyphoplasty, laminectomy and disc herniation. He serves on the editorial boards of The International Journal of Spine Surgery and Spine. He is active in research and has served as the principal investigator for the X Stop Interspinous Spacer FDA five-year outcome study from 2007 to 2012. He is currently the medical director of the Superion FDA clinical trial. He has won numerous awards over the course of his career, including Scoliosis Research Society Dawson Traveling Fellowship.
"The aging population in the U.S. is expanding and so is the prevalence of spinal discarders effecting this population," says Dr. Shamie."Being a spine surgeon in 2014 gives me the tremendous opportunity and pleasure to decrease human suffering, one patient at a time, using the most advanced techniques and minimally invasive technologies available in our armamentarium. Patients are going home quicker after surgery and are able to resume their work and normal activities faster than a decade ago when I first started my practice at UCLA. I am also excited about the improved medium of communication allowing us to educate and communicate with our colleagues not only locally, but also worldwide through the cyberspace. I look forward to the future of the scientific advancement, as we enter the next phase of our surgical practice when we can manipulate not just diseased anatomy but also cellular activity for more effective and longer lasting treatments for our patients."
Dr. Shamie earned his medical degree at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago and completed his residency in orthopedic surgery at St. Mary's Hospital and Medical Center in San Francisco. He has also completed fellowships in spine surgery and bone research at UCLA School of Medicine.
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