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most complex diseases and injuries. Patients with complex disorders, particularly those seeking a definitive diagnosis, patients with rare diseases, or patients seeking clinical trials with medicines or emerging technologies and techniques often find extended help in an academic medical setting.
Physicians affiliated with university hospitals are often those who engage research throughout their careers. Like Dr. Herman, they’re a bit more attuned to thinking outside the box. Medical students find rare and unusual diagnoses of great interest. Furthermore, many university medical programs formally require research and publishing papers, and unusual diagnoses, clinical trials and emerging technologies provide good topics. Dr. Herman’s Neurosurgery residency included a dedicated year for research.
Dr. Herman enthusiastically affirms that working with VCMC teaching and Trauma Departments were two of the most salient factors that drove his decision to become the VCMC Director of Neurosurgery, ‘’One of the things I love about working at VCMC is that it IS a teaching hospital. It’s a lot of fun to teach; even among the partners I work with, we’re all trying to expand our knowledge. It’s about always improving the ability to provide the best care possible, and achieving good patient outcomes. “
As a covering physician at VCMC’s esteemed Tier 2 Trauma Center for West Ventura County, Dr. Herman directs the diagnostics and performs surgeries for neuro-trauma cases, utilizing an array of advanced neurosurgical techniques, robotic and Stereotactic surgical technologies.
Neurosurgeons treat disorders of the brain, spinal cord, nerve roots and cranial structures, using traditional open surgery, minimally invasive surgery, neuroradiology and imaging, i.e. CT, MRI, PET, and MEG. Patients seek or may be referred to a neurosurgeon for conditions like head and spinal trauma, disc herniation, cranial malformation, benign and malignant brain tumors, or
for neurodegenerative disease interventional treatment, among other conditions.
Neuroscience-related diseases are the leading cause of disability in the U.S., affecting nearly 20-million people. There are more than 600 different types of devastating neurological disorders, and when people, especially the elderly, are asked what their major health concern is, they most likely won’t say heart disease, or even cancer. One study showed that over 90% say, they are worried about their brain and want their mind to stay sharp.
STEREOTACTIC IMAGE GUIDED SURGERY
BUILDING THE 21ST CENTURY DIGITAL
OPERATING ROOM AT VCMC
For Dr. Herman, who from boyhood loved science and understanding how things work in an intellectual hands-on way, the field of Neurology and Neurosurgery offers continuous technological advancement and evolution of techniques. One of Dr. Herman’s specialties, Stereotactic Neurosurgery, also known as Image Guided Surgery (IGS), is a method for localizing and/or treating very precise targets within the brain and spine.
One of the new specialized treatment acquisitions Dr. Herman helped to bring to VCMC is The BrainLab Image Guided Surgery platform and its integrated suite of products. The new “navigation” system enables Dr. Herman’s Neurosurgery Department to undertake complex brain and spine surgeries and therapies, that just a few years ago weren’t possible.
The BrainLab system can be used in conjunction with laparoscopic, endoscopic, robotic, and open approaches, as well as for diagnostic and therapeutic purposes. A technology applicable to many other surgical disciplines, the fully integrated suite of BrainLab software/hardware includes universal tool integration to allow physicians the freedom of
choice to use other implant/surgical instrument manufacturers of their choice.
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