Spine Leaders

Steven Garfin, MD, is an orthopedic spine surgeon with a special interest in adult spine. He is currently the chairman of the department of orthopedic surgery at UC San Diego and was recently elected president of the International Society for…

Raj Rao, MD, is a professor of Orthopaedic Surgery and Neurosurgery at the Medical College of Wisconsin, having served as the director of the spine and orthopaedic surgery department since 1999. His special interests include surgical management of cervical myelopathy,…

Philip G. Ploska, MD, is a spine surgeon at Resurgens Orthopaedics and practices at the Griffin and Henry, Ga., office locations. He has a special interest in arthroscopic surgery and disorders of the spine. He performs minimally invasive spine surgery,…

Walter Eckman, MD, has limited his practice at Aurora Spine Center in Tupelu, Miss., to exclusively minimally invasive spine surgery. For the past 10 years, he has been performing a minimally invasive transforaminal lumbar interbody fusion technique as an outpatient…

Ara Deukmedjian, MD, is the CEO of the Deuk Spine Institute and developer of the Deuk Laser Disc Repair™ technique. The technique is different from other minimally invasive and endoscopic spine surgeries, because virtually all other endoscopic laser spine surgeries…

Fred Sweet, MD, is more than a spine surgeon at the Rockford Spine Center – he co-founded it in 2003, with the intention of creating a nationally recognized spine center in Rockford, Ill.

William Taylor, MD, is a spine surgeon with the UC San Diego Health System and founding member of the Society for Minimally Invasive Spine Surgery. He is a past president of SMISS and currently serves on the board of directors.…

Frank Cammisa, MD, is the chief of the spine service at Hospital for Special Surgery. His expertise includes minimally invasive spine surgery, computer-assisted spinal surgery, athletic spinal injuries and motion-preserving procedures. He is a spinal consultant for the National Hockey…

Paul R. Jeffords, MD, is co-medical director of the Resurgens Spine Center in Atlanta and section chief of the department of orthopedic surgery at St. Joseph's Hospital. His area of expertise includes adult spinal disorders, reconstructive spine surgery, minimally invasive…

Frank Phillips, MD, is the director of the section of minimally invasive spine surgery at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago. He practices with Midwest Orthopaedics at Rush and focuses his basic science research on the biomechanics of spinal reconstruction…