Fellowship Opportunities
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University of Nebraska Medical Center

Fellowship Program Director: Aviva Abosch MD, PhD
Program Faculty: Dr. Aviva Abosch, Dr. Josue Avecillas-Chasin, Dr. Amy Hellman, Dr. Lakshman Arcot Jayagopal, Dr. Miguel Situ-Kcomt, Dr. Olga Taraschenko, Dr. Stephen Gliske
Length of Fellowship: 1 year
CAST/SNS Approval: Yes

Program’s goals and objectives

The goal of the University of Nebraska Medical Center Fellowship in Stereotactic and Functional Neurosurgery is to train exceptional functional neurosurgeons with broad and deep expertise in the surgical medical treatment and management of patients with movement disorders, epilepsy, spasticity, pain, and tumors of eloquent cortex. The fellow will achieve competence in the following specific areas:

  • Use of MRI for image-based target localization for surgery of the thalamus, subthalamic nucleus, globus pallidus internus, ventral capsule/ventral striatum, and novel targets
  • Use of microelectrode recording techniques for physiological localization in the thalamus, subthalamic nucleus, globus pallidus internus, ventral capsule/ventral striatum, and novel targets
  • Intraoperative testing of DBS electrodes prior to internalization of the electrodes
  • Placement of DBS hardware and management of hardware-related complications
  • Indications for surgery, and preoperative neurologic evaluation, in patients with Parkinson’s disease, dystonia, tremor, as well as intractable headache disorders (migraine or cluster headache)
  • Programming of DBS devices
  • Pathophysiology of the basal ganglia in movement disorders, and theoretical basis for lesioning and chronic electrical stimulation in movement disorder
  • Surgical, ablative, and medical management of the epilepsies
  • Surgical, ablative and neuromodulatory, management of medically refractory pain.

Our goal is to ensure that each fellow has the necessary skills and resources to launch a successful career in academic neurosurgery. To ensure attainment of this goal, mentorship will be provided to assist the fellow in the following research-related activities:

  • Identification and refinement of meaningful and answerable research questions, and review of relevant literature
  • Identification of appropriate collaborators
  • Study design, including statistical analysis
  • IRB approval process for human subjects research
  • Data collection and analysis
  • Abstract preparation and submission
  • Manuscript preparation, submission, and publication

Our goal is to also safeguard that each fellow develops the essential interpersonal and communication skills required to effectively work within interdisciplinary clinical and research teams involved in the practice of functional neurosurgery. Mentorship will be provided to the fellow to achieve this goal. Effective communication skills with patients, families and members of the healthcare team will be evaluated semi-annually with a formal evaluation.

Neurosurgical procedure exposure

  • Surgery for Movement Disorders: Yes
  • Epilepsy Surgery: Yes
  • Pain Procedures: Yes
  • Surgery for Spasticity: Yes
  • Stereotactic Radiosurgery: Yes
  • Psychosurgery: Yes
  • Other (please indicate): None specified

Contact Information

Aviva Abosch, MD, PhD
988437 Nebraska Medical Center
Omaha, NE 68198
Email: Aviva.abosch@unmc.edu
Preferred Contact: Kellie Devney (Fellowship Coordinator)
Email: kdevney@unmc.edu
Phone: (402) 559-9605
URL: Web page