Scholarly Activity

Scholarly activity is an integral part of residency training, activities in which our residents are continuously engaged. Members of our program create and maintain an environment of inquiry and scholarship with active research components. By the end of training, each resident is proficient in the critical appraisal of neurosurgical literature and thus, the application of evidence-based medicine.

Research Didactics, Education and Journal Club

Research didactics are designed to strengthen our scholarly efforts by teaching fundamental skills and showcasing resident projects. We focus on practical execution challenges such as defining outcomes, designing databases, conducting statistical analyses and writing manuscripts.

Core activities of research didactics include:

• Research in progress’ updates that serve as a check-in on active projects during didactics and provide an opportunity for group discussion and collaboration among residents and faculty.
• Research methodology education that is available at any time via video series created for our program. Additional opportunities for methodology education are available during didactics.
• Journal clubs that cover cutting-edge research and foundational topics in neurosurgery. Residents present publications based on their current scholarly activity and guide the group through critical appraisal of the work using established methodological guidelines, like PRISMA and CONSORT.

Laboratory Workshops

As part of our core curriculum, residents complete multiple skills and cadaveric workshops every year. The Van Elsander Surgical Innovation Center in Novi and the Simulation and Education Center in Southfield offer hands-on procedural training with cadaveric models and advanced simulation tools that complement surgical training. These workshops keep our residents up to date on the latest surgical techniques, medical technologies, and device applications in the practice of spinal, endoscopic, skull base, cranial, and endovascular surgeries.

Michigan Spine Surgery Improvement Collaborative

Our program is part of the Michigan Spine Surgery Improvement Collaborative (MSSIC), supported by Blue Cross Blue Shield. MSSIC works with orthopedic and neurological surgeons to improve quality of care and patient outcomes as well as reduce healthcare costs, surgical complications, and repeat surgeries. Our program contributes to MSSIC by collecting and sharing patient reported outcomes and key surgical metrics to provide excellent spine surgery care throughout Michigan.

Quality Improvement

Residents and faculty collaborate with a diverse team of healthcare professionals regularly to advance patient safety goals within the institution. Quality improvement projects are created by residents, faculty and research staff to advance healthcare areas such as patient education, physician training and surgical outcomes.