Patients suffering back pain or other back problems all want the same thing: A safe, effective cure from a compassionate, expert doctor. At the Weill Cornell Brain and Spine Center, our spine surgeons are among the best in the nation. Don't take our word for it:
Top Doctors
Castle Connolly Medical Ltd. is the most respected name in the field when it comes to identifying top hospitals and doctors. Castle Connolly conducts a thorough peer nomination and review process each year, then releases annual lists of Top Doctors. Those lists include Top Doctors in America as well as Top Doctors in geographic areas and Top Doctors by speciality.When you see lists of Best Doctors in magazines, including U.S. News and World Report and New York magazine, those listings originated with Castle Connolly.
SuperDoctors
Only 5 percent of the doctors in the United States are named to the annual list of SuperDoctors. A combination of peer nomination and staff research produces the final list, which is released in specific geographical areas at different times of the year.
The spine surgeons at the Weill Cornell Brain and Spine Center routinely appear on these lists:
Dr. Roger Hartl has been named by Castle Connolly as one of America's Top Doctors for the last seven years and one of the Top Doctors in the New York Metro Area for the past eight years. In 2016 Dr. Hartl once again appeared in New York magazine as one of New York's Best Doctors 2016. When Dr. Hartl appeared in the inaugural edition of the U.S. News and World Report listing of Top Doctors, he was identified as being one of the top 1 percent of spine doctors in the United States. In addition, Dr. Hartl has been named by Becker's Orthopedic & Spine Review as one of the 50 Best Spine Specialists in America. See Dr. Hartl's page on the Castle Connolly Top Doctors site and his page on the SuperDoctors site.
Dr. Eric Elowitz has been winning accolades since 1998, when he received the Young Investigator Award from the Section on Tumors of the American Association of Neurological Surgeons. Dr. Elowitz was first named to the list of SuperDoctors in 2008, and has been on that list ever since. He was added to the list of Castle Connolly Top Doctors in 2015. In 2015 he also appeared in New York magazine as one of New York's Best Doctors 2015. Dr. Elowitz joined the faculty at Weill Cornell in 2010, bringing with him expertise in minimally invasive spine surgery. See Dr. Elowitz's SuperDoctors page.
Plus...
Dr. Ali Baaj is a board-certified neurosurgeon who specializes in spinal surgery, with advanced training and expertise in spinal oncology and complex reconstructive surgery for spinal deformity. He is accomplished in both minimally invasive spinal surgery and open complex spine surgery, having had formal training in both orthopedic and neurosurgical spine surgery. He was first selected to the list of SuperDoctors Rising Stars in 2013 while at Johns Hopkins; Dr. Baaj joined the Weill Cornell Spine Center in 2015.
Kai-Ming Fu, M.D., Ph.D., is an award-winning neurosurgeon who combines surgical expertise with advanced training in state-of-the-art techniques to provide patients with effective, minimally invasive treatments for conditions of the spine. Dr. Fu specializes in scoliosis, disc herniation, spinal stenosis, and tumors of the spinal cord. He is widely published and has presented lectures on his research internationally. He was first named to the list of SuperDoctors Rising Stars in 2015.
