We're preparing the department for the future by mentoring my junior faculty and the faculty to
be able to achieve their goals
to be able to be leaders.
We're also preparing for the future by having and teaching residents that will be the next generation of
neurosurgeons to carry forward this vision. We're doing innovative research both clinical and laboratory, and in the laboratory to
to try and add to the fund of knowledge and to look for solutions to the problems that we deal with every day.
Well, the Department of Neurological Surgery here at UC Davis works very closely with a lot of other groups on campus.
So we have a multidisciplinary approach to treating neurological diseases. We work very closely with colleagues in neurology,
radiation oncology, medical oncology,
and so we're able to really pull all the resources together
and put together plans for our patients that are really ideal for their particular condition.
Having been a patient here myself,
I know exactly what you're going through. Me and my staff will do everything we can to help you.
I think we need to keep pushing things forward.
We need to keep developing better ways to do things and really focus on our patients. Focus on what they're going through,
how we can make the experience better for them and give them better outcomes than we used to.
I think minimally invasive plays such a big part in
patient care, especially the older patients as they're getting older.
I think we we bring what they need instead of just operating on everybody like a cookie-cutter approach.
I think it's important for our patients to know that we have cutting-edge
neurosurgery here at UC Davis. I think we're offering something to our region that is different, better
and really world-class. And I think people in this community, especially as someone who grew up here, deserve that kind of care.
You know I love to take care of people and just make that small difference in their lives. Just help it along a little bit.
And the greatest reward is when that is successful.
We have at UC Davis a collection of faculty both clinical and basic science who are really committed to
collaboration and committed to high-quality research.
I'm confident that at UC Davis we
can solve clinical problems and really improve the quality of life of our patients.
Our team here at UC Davis
is made up of scientists with outstanding backgrounds in research in neuroscience, using cutting-edge technology to develop new treatments
to improve the lives of our patients.
We are diligently conducting research to increase our understanding of traumatic brain injury, and then translating these findings into
treatments and therapies for our patients.
To be able to be part of a group of people that are working towards a better understanding of this very complex structure and better understanding of these diseases,
we hope that one day we can help these people.
And that to me is rewarding, is very rewarding.
While I'm passionate about my traumatic brain injury research, what I really love about being a professor at UC Davis is training students.
I can only do so much in one lifetime,
but if I can get 10, 20, 30 students really involved with traumatic brain injury research,
we're more likely to come up with a treatment that will improve the quality of lives of patients with traumatic brain injury.
I do see excellent outcomes in some patients,
which is very very rewarding. You have a patient come in with a ruptured aneurysm, they may be comatose,
and we do have means to treat them.
And it's very complex, and it's very challenging.
Wherever we see great outcomes when a patient who came in comatose may actually
become much better during their hospitalization and leave the hospital
being able to go back to work even. And we regularly see these outcomes, and that makes it very
rewarding to be able to treat these for the patients.
We really have a focus on optimizing brain recovery, neurologic recovery, to give patients the best chance they can to walk out of the hospital and
to get back as close as they can to their normal life.
It's a really exciting time in the field of neurocritical care. And at UC Davis,
I have the unique opportunity to work as part of a multidisciplinary group of clinicians and educators, including
neurointensivists,
neurologists,
neurosurgeons,
neuroradiologists and other intensivists. And we have the unique opportunity
to really have an impact in the care of our patients.
My specialty is
taking care of the patients who require surgical treatment, but my hope and passion is to
treat those patients that we are currently treating surgically without surgery.
And I hope one day to make my job obsolete.
You always want patients and their families to know
that you're there for them, and that you are compassionate and
that you care about them. The secret to caring for the patient is
caring for the patient.