My name is Safdar Khan. I'm an assistant professor of orthopedic surgery at the Division of Spine
Surgery at the Department of Orthopedics here at Ohio State University Medical Center.
I am a spine surgeon. I take care of conditions afflicting the cervical, thoracic, and lumbar
spine, including degenerative conditions as well as, what my area of interest is, which
is adult and pediatric advanced deformity.
I've been in the practice of medicine since 1998. I did over four-and-a-half years of
benchtop research at the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York before I went on to do
my residency in orthopedic surgery in California. There, I also took a year out as a commitment
to research, teaching and education during my residency.
Once I was done and matriculated from my residency at UC Davis in California, I chose to do a
reconstructive spine fellowship in both adult and pediatric complex spine at Rush University
Medical Center in Chicago.
My philosophy in taking care of patients is they're like family. You know, we take
care of very, very complex patients, both adult and pediatric patients. And in circumstances
where surgery is needed, it is already a very tough time, it's a tense time. I pride myself
in treating each patient like I would treat my own family. And from me, you can rest assured
that I will treat you no different than I would treat members of my own family.
Research is an essential component of what we do. And the discoveries that come from
benchtop research can be translated into clinical medicine, and there are numerous examples
where spine as a specialty has really led the way for a lot of different discoveries
in the practice of orthopedics and spine surgery. So for us to be a very vibrant division of
spine with a lot of research, I think we can develop and be part of, we can develop great
things in the lab which can be applied translationally to patients.
One of the things that I'm very excited about is bringing advanced concepts of spinal reconstruction
for deformity in both the pediatric and adult patient. These include triplanar, or osteotomies
in three different planes. Some of the things that I'm also involved in are stem cell research,
hoping to bring that to the clinical arena here. And one of the things on the horizon
that is very exciting in our specialty is total disc replacement. It's much like replacing
the joints of your hip and knee. We can now, with a prosthesis, replace the soft cushioning
between your vertebral bodies, which can cause pain and pinched nerves.
What might work for someone doesn't necessarily work for every single person, so part of the
job that I have is to treat patients as they come in individually and come up with a treatment
plan that is specific to their condition. That may include non-operative care. That
may include surgery. So I think combining the tenants of research, teaching, education,
to provide excellent patient care fits into the mold of the mission of Ohio State to provide
personalized medicine for every individual.
I grew up in Pakistan and came to this country in 1998. Since then I've been involved in
research, teaching, education. I married my wife who's a clinical psychologist from California.
And we have two boys so far. And I love cooking, actually, I fancy myself as an amateur chef.
And back in the day, I used to play bass guitar in a band, but hopefully there are no pictures
available.