The Department of Neurosurgery at Houston Methodist Hospital offers a Neurosurgical Spine Fellowship Program accredited by CAST (The Committee on Advanced Subspecialty Training) and under the directorship of Paul J. Holman, MD. 

The purpose of the fellowship is to train fellows with a highly refined clinical acumen and surgical skill set that will allow them to most effectively treat any type of spinal malady. At Houston Methodist we have approximately 3,500 spine surgeries performed - providing an excellent opportunity to excel in spinal surgery, both technically and clinically. Given the need for more spine surgeons, it is important to train well rounded fellows as this will have a large impact on our community.

The fellow will be expected to lead rounds, formulate plan of action for patient care, teach residents, and perform meaningful research. Responsibilities include seeing patients in the outpatient setting as well as rounding on inpatients and functioning as an educator in the department with the expectation of teaching residents in the clinic and operating room. There is also a two-month rotation at MD Anderson Cancer Center under the supervision of Dr. Shaan Raza.

The fellow will also be expected to participate in clinical research in the following areas:

• Clinical outcomes for adult spinal deformity patients undergoing fusion with patient specific instrumentation
• Applications and clinical outcomes for patients undergoing surgery with robotic guidance
• Applications and outcomes for interlaminar and endoscopic spinal surgical approaches
• Clinical and radiographic outcomes for carbon fiber pedicle screw applications in spinal fusion for metastatic disease
  
  

At the conclusion of the fellowship, the fellow will have mastered patient selection for surgery, operative decision-making, technical details of spine surgery including instrumentation and minimally invasive endoscopic approaches, and care of the post and perioperative spine patient.