U.S. News & World Report released its 2026-2027 Best Hospitals rankings Aug. 4. The rankings for neurology and neurosurgery evaluated more than 1,030 hospitals nationwide based on care for brain hemorrhage, conditions affecting the central nervous system, including spinal disorders and injuries, degenerative neurologic diseases such as multiple sclerosis, stroke, seizures and meningitis.
Here are the physicians leading the teams at the top five hospitals in the rankings for neurology and neurosurgery:
1. NYU Langone Hospitals (New York City) — Led by John Golfinos, MD.
Dr. Golfinos is chair of the Department of Neurosurgery at NYU Grossman School of Medicine and co-director of the Brain Tumor Center at Perlmutter Cancer Center. He specializes in the surgical and noninvasive treatment of brain tumors. Dr. Golfinos has devoted much of his research career to neurofibromatosis Type 2 and has been named one of America’s Top Doctors by Castle Connolly for more than 10 years.
2. UCSF Health-UCSF Medical Center (San Francisco) — Led by Edward Chang, MD.
Dr. Chang is chair of the Department of Neurological Surgery at UCSF Health-UCSF Medical Center. He specializes in advanced brain mapping methods used to safely perform surgery for epilepsy, adult brain tumors and trigeminal neuralgia. Dr. Chang joined the faculty in 2010 and was named chair in 2020. He was elected to the National Academy of Medicine in 2020 and the National Academy of Sciences in 2025.
3. NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital-Columbia and Cornell (New York City) — Led by Sander Connolly, MD, and J Mocco, MD.
Dr. Connolly is chair of the Department of Neurological Surgery at Columbia Medicine and neurosurgeon-in-chief of the Neurological Institute of New York at NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia University Irving Medical Center. His clinical interests include brain aneurysms and arteriovenous malformations. He also serves as surgical director of the neuro-intensive care unit, caring for patients with hemorrhagic and ischemic stroke.
Dr. Mocco is chair of the Department of Neurological Surgery and neurosurgeon-in-chief at Weill Cornell Medicine and NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center. A cerebrovascular and endovascular specialist, he treats ischemic and hemorrhagic stroke, brain aneurysms and complex brain tumors.
4. Mayo Clinic (Rochester, Minn.) — Led by Gelareh Zadeh, MD, PhD.
Dr. Zadeh is chair of the Department of Neurosurgery at Mayo Clinic. She is a neurosurgeon-scientist specializing in neuro-oncology, with a particular focus on gliomas and meningiomas. She treats patients with skull base tumors and brain cancers through multidisciplinary programs for brain metastases, pituitary disorders and neurofibromatosis. Before joining Mayo Clinic, Dr. Zadeh spent nearly two decades at the University of Toronto and Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, where she became the first woman elected chair of the Division of Neurosurgery and received the Canada Gairdner Momentum Award.
5. Rush University Medical Center (Chicago) — Led by John O’Toole, MD.
Dr. O’Toole is chair of the Department of Neurological Surgery at Rush University Medical Center after previously serving as co-director of neurosciences at Rush since 2021. A spinal neurosurgeon, he specializes in spinal tumors and degenerative spinal conditions, with expertise in minimally invasive surgical techniques designed to reduce pain and recovery time. In April 2026, he completed the world’s first robotic spinal tumor removal using the Symani Surgical System.
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