Saint John’s Health Center today announced the appointment of world-renowned neurosurgeon Amin Kassam, MD, as Director of the new Saint John’s Neuroscience Institute and faculty member of the John Wayne Cancer Institute at Saint John’s. Dr. Kassam will lead the development of the new Neuroscience Institute which will offer an international minimally invasive neurosurgery center, as well as neuro-oncology, neuro-vascular surgery and other neuroscience services. The Institute will build on the foundation established over the last two years by Daniel F. Kelly, MD, Medical Director of the highly regarded Saint John’s Brain Tumor Center.
Prior to his arrival at Saint John’s, Dr. Kassam served as Chairman of the Department of Neurological Surgery, Professor of Neurological Surgery, and Director, Minimally Invasive endoNeurosurgery Center at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC). In this role, he directed one of the world’s leading neurosurgical centers, consistently ranked as one of America’s best neuroscience facilities by U.S. News & World Report.
Dr. Kassam joined the faculty of the University of Pittsburgh in 1997. During those 12 years, he held several positions and pioneered a number of novel procedures and techniques. He developed the multidisciplinary Minimally Invasive endoNeurosurgery Center which deals with the complex skull base pathology. Dr. Kassam also was a pioneer in the development of the Expanded Endonasal Approach which uses the nostrils as natural portals to remove brain and skull base tumors rather than using a traditional craniotomy (surgical opening through the top of the skull). He also was Director of the Center for Cranial Nerve Disorders at UPMC. During his tenure, physicians at the center performed more than 1,000 microvascular decompressions for disorders such as trigeminal neuralgia and hemifacial spasm.
“We are privileged to have someone of Dr. Kassam’s unique and rare expertise join Saint John’s,” said Lou Lazatin, Chief Executive Officer of Saint John’s and John Wayne Cancer Institute. “His appointment advances what Dr. Kelly founded at Saint John’s. A Kelly and Kassam team will further our legacy of providing breakthrough medicine with inspired healing.”
Dr. Kassam is the latest in a series of nationally recognized medical experts to join Saint John’s from leading academic medical centers, going back to the relocation of the John Wayne Cancer Institute from UCLA in 1991. Saint John’s began developing its neuroscience program with the arrival of Dr. Kelly from UCLA and establishment of the Saint John’s Brain Tumor Center in 2007. The Brain Tumor Center provides comprehensive care, minimally invasive surgery and support for patients with brain tumors, skull base tumors and pituitary adenomas.