Message from Program Director

Dear Prospective Neurosurgeon,

I would like to take this opportunity to introduce you to the University of Alabama's Neurosurgical Residency Training Program, one of the finest in the country. We offer a seven year, ACGME accredited full spectrum curriculum, attracting medical students from across the country. We emphasize top-flight and compassionate patient care, advanced surgical and procedural skills and the development of keen, progressive, clinical and basic science medical evidence-based cognition. Our graduates enter private or academic neurosurgical practice, equipped with the knowledge, skills and experiences for outstanding neurosurgical careers.   

Collectively, we perform more than 4500 neurosurgical procedures per year, based at the University of Alabama Medical Center, Children's Hospital of Alabama, and at the  Birmingham Veterans' Administration Hospital. Our faculty is nationally and internationally recognized and has acclaimed expertise in all aspects of neurosurgical care, providing the complete spectrum of neurosurgical procedures and management.  We have designated Centers of Excellence in Neurooncology, Pediatric Neurosurgery, Spinal and Spinal Cord Disorders, Neurovascular diseases, Functional Neurosurgery and Clinical Outcomes Science. As a result, our residents gain proficiency and expertise in each of these fundamental areas of focus.

Our Program is fundamentally committed to research and evidence-based approaches to science and neurosurgical care. Starting with the PGY-1 year, each resident receives personal consultation and direction from our Clinical Outcomes Science and Translational Research team,  headed by Dr. Beverly Walters. This collaboration is intended to help the resident coordinate his/her research activities, and help guide them through the process from proposal to publication. Moreover, our residents receive specialized training in medical evidence-based science and techniques, through regularly scheduled conferences and journal clubs. This is a novel component to a neurosurgical curriculum, and is unique to the UAB program. It has resulted in an explosion of scientific and academic work by residents and an unprecedented number of publications and resident research prizes each year.

As a result of clinical and research training exposuree, our residents routinely present at national meetings (AANS, CNS, Southern,Section meetings), regularly publish in the key neurosurgical journals, and are well regarded in the academic neurosurgery community.

As the Training Program Director, it has been my goal to develop  the most contemporary, comprehensive academic training paradigm  and experience in the nation. We have been remarkably successful but it remains a work in progress. I hope you will consider joining us to participate in and assist us in achieving our goals. Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions.

Best Wishes,

Mark N. Hadley, MD, FACS
Charles and Patsy Collat Professor of Neurological Surgery