Comprehensive Care Centers
Specialty Centers
Overview
The Brown University / Rhode Island Hospital neurosurgery program for neuromodulation and epilepsy uses the latest neurotechnologies to restore hope and function to patients in the least invasive and most precise ways possible.
Our approach to each patient is highly customized to provide the safest, most effective, and best-tolerated procedures available, using advanced surgical techniques and implantable devices, as appropriate. These include MRI-guided laser ablation, gamma knife, traditional craniotomy with intra-operative imaging and real-time neuro-navigation, and brain stimulation with multi-source and responsive (closed-loop) devices.
These techniques and tools are applied to a variety of neurological and psychiatric disorders to eliminate or minimize disease expression, and to maximize quality of life.
Brown University has a long history as a pioneer in the field of neuromodulation. Patients have the option to participate in ongoing clinical research, to further advance our knowledge, techniques and tools for the benefit of future patients and their families.
The neuromodulation and epilepsy program consists of three divisions, with each one composed of a multi-disciplinary team of clinicians focused on achieving a careful understanding of each patient’s condition and goals:
Movement Disorders
The movement disorders team evaluates patients in a comprehensive “fast track” clinic where those considering deep brain stimulation for diseases such as Parkinson’s, Essential Tremor and Dystonia can learn about their disease and explore their treatment options. Decisions are made in a team-based manner, and clinicians from neurosurgery and neurology often work together even in the operating room to ensure optimal targeting for maximal patient benefit.
Epilepsy
Rhode Island Hospital is a Level 4 epilepsy center, offering the full array of the most advanced surgical options for patients with epilepsy. These include high-density intracranial recordings for seizure focus identification, MRI-guided laser ablation of a seizure focus, and brain stimulation to reduce seizures.
Intractable Psychiatric Disorders
Brown University is a world-leader in the application of surgical techniques for severe, intractable psychiatric disorders such as debilitating and otherwise untreatable obsessive compulsive disorder. A team of psychiatrists, neuropsychologists, neurologists, neurosurgeons and ethicists carefully consider patients who have failed all other treatments, to assess whether surgery might offer symptom relief and an improved quality of life.
Our Team
Director
Movement Disorders Fast Track Clinic Team
Neurologists
Umer Akbar, MD, Movement Disorders Specialist, Neurology
Joseph Friedman, MD, Director, Movement Disorders Center, Neurology
Neurosurgeon
Wael Asaad, MD, PhD, Director of Functional Neurosurgery and Neuromodulation
Neuropsychologist
Jennifer David, PhD
Physical therapists
Speech therapists
Swallow function specialist
Functional Neurosurgery & Neuromodulation Research Team
Shane Lee, PhD,Post-Doctoral Fellow, Neuroscience & Neurosurgery
Peter Lauro, MD/PhD Student, Neuroscience & Alpert Medical School
Erin Schaeffer, Research Assistant, Neuroscience & Neurosurgery
Daniel Amaya, MS student, Biotechnology
Epilepsy Team
Neurosurgery Department Team
Wael Asaad, MD, PhD
Steven Toms, MD
Albert Telfeian, MD, PhD
Multidisciplinary Team
Epileptologists
Andrew Blum, MD, PhD – Director of Epilepsy Center, Neurology
Gina Deck, MD – Epileptologist, Neurology
Julie Roth, MD – Epileptologist, Neurology
Radiologists
Jerrold Boxerman, MD – Neuroradiologist, Radiology
Psychiatric Neurosurgery Committee
Neurosurgeons
Wael Asaad, MD, PhD, Director of Neuromodulation and Epilepsy Surgery
Psychiatrists from Butler Hospital and Brown University
Steven Rasmussen, MD, Chair of Psychiatry, Psychiatry
Benjamin Greenberg, MD, PhD, Psychiatrist, Psychiatry
Neuropsychologists
Nicole McLaughlin, PhD, Neuropsychologist, Psychiatry
Geoffrey Tremont, PhD
Neurologists
Kenneth Rickler, MD, Neurologist, Neurology / Butler Hospital
Conditions We Treat
Movement Disorders
- Parkinson’s Disease
- Essential Tremor
- Dystonia
Epilepsy
- Intractable Focal Epilepsy
- Intractable Multi-Focal Epilepsy
Neuropsychiatric Disorders
- Intractable OCD
- Intractable Depression (experimental)
- Intractable Tourette’s Disease (experimental)
- Alzheimer’s Disease (experimental)
Research
Neurosurgery Department
Other Labs
Technology
Recent News
“Functional neurosurgery aims to restore quality of life to patients with a wide variety of chronic, debilitating neurological disorders.”
– Wael F. Asaad, MD, PhD
Rhode Island Hospital
Ambulatory Patient Center
(APC) 6
593 Eddy Street
Providence, RI 02903
401-793-9128
401-444-2661
