Frank Phillips, MD, has been a proponent of minimally invasive spine surgery for decades and is director of minimally invasive spine surgery at Midwest Orthopaedics at Rush in Chicago.
Dr. Phillips has been a leader in minimally invasive spine surgery and was one of the first in Chicago to utilize techniques in the 1990s. He also is a founder, board member and past president of the Society of Minimally Invasive Spine Surgery.
He earned his medical degree from the University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa and completed his residency at the University of Chicago Medical Center. At the University of Chicago Medical Center he was director of its spine center before joining Rush in 2003.
Dr. Phillips won numerous awards for his research and teaching in spine surgery, according to his website.
He’s also making advances in spinal technologies and debuted Augmedics’ new CT-to-fluoroscopy registration method in November.
“In 2025, navigation techniques will increase in sophistication and likely involve a combination of augmented reality and robotic technologies,” he said. “More complex surgeries such as multilevel decompressions and osteotomies will be performed with augmented reality technologies. We will also see the ability to create segmented CT scans from routine pre-operative MRI studies eliminating CTs from the process. Machine learning technologies will further facilitate our ability to navigate without the need for advanced imaging. Enabling technologies will likely evolve to include superimposed real time bone and soft tissue images (such as nerves or blood vessels) visualized with 3D augmented reality.”
Dr. Phillips is speaking at Becker’s 22nd Annual Spine, Orthopedic and Pain Management-Driven ASC + The Future of Spine Conference, set for June 18-21 at the Swissotel Chicago.
