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processing. They have been designed with complex visual interfaces and control consoles designed to mirror movements of the surgeon’s hand, with the sensitivity to adjust for unintended tremble as slight as that caused by the human pulse.
BECOMING A NEUROSURGEON OS A LONG HAUL
Like many of the specialty surgeons at Anacapa Surgical Associates, Dr. Herman spent nearly two decades in school before entering a fully-fledged medical career in his early 30’s. It’s a very expensive, highly competitive, calculated long-game life gamble. The young guy who naturally gravitated to work with his hands needed to get through his young adulthood and decades of school with those special hands fully intact. Dr. Herman acknowledges it was long journey, often grueling, to becoming a Neurosurgeon – but one well worth the effort.
After obtaining a Bachelor of Science in Chemistry and Biology in 1982, from Pacifica College in California, Dr. Herman relocated to Chicago, Illinois where he earned his M.D. at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, graduating with honors.
Dr. Herman attended the McGaw Medical Center of Northwestern University, from 1986-1989, for his General Surgery Residency and Internship. McGraw medical training emphasizes
collaborative, multidisciplinary patient care, leading edge research & clinical trials, surgical excellence, and advocacy for underserved patients and communities. Today, that background is reflected in Dr. Herman’s core values at work for VCMC.
Dr. Herman undertook his Neurological Surgery Specialty Residency at the world renowned Barrow Neurological Institute. Barrow houses the country’s largest neuroscience center with some of the most advanced operating rooms in the world. The mammoth neurological care/research/teaching center is the site of many neurosurgery firsts, groundbreaking neuroscience research, and the Muhammad Ali Parkinson Center.
In 1989, the first year of Dr. Herman’s Neurosurgery Residency, Barrow Neurological Institute made international headlines with the successful reattachment of the skull of a boy whose skull was severed from his spine!
Since its inception, Barrow doctors have consistently pioneered new methods, made life-saving discoveries, and graduated elite surgeons with leadership qualities. Like Dr. Herman, many Directors of Neurosurgery across the country are in fact Barrow alumni.
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