Dr. Charla Fischer one of New York City’s top minimally invasive spine surgeons. She specializes in lumbar disc herniations, lumbar spinal stenosis, lumbar degenerative disc disease, instability, and cervical spine degeneration. She is also an expert in advanced minimally invasive spine surgery techniques such as minimally invasive microdiscetomy, MIS lumbar fusions, robotic-assisted spine surgery, and advanced MIS techniques.
Dr. Fischer completed her residency at Columbia after completing both medical school and undergraduate school on a full academic scholarship at University of Southern California. She spent a year specializing in spine surgery at NYU-Hospital for Joint Diseases.
As an associate professor of spine surgery at NYU Langone Medical Center, Dr. Fischer regularly teaches residents and medical students in the areas of compassionate patient care and minimally invasive spine surgery. She has received grants from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Orthopedic Research and Education Foundation (OREF). The funding helps her pursuits in the advancement of minimally invasive surgical techniques, and quality of life improvements after spine surgery. She routinely publishes in the top peer-reviewed journals and presents her findings at internationally attended academic meetings. She serves on the SRS Research Committee and is an Associate Editor for the prestigious Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery.
Dr. JR Rizzo is a physician scientist at Rusk Rehabilitation. He leads the Visuomotor Integration Laboratory where his team focuses on eye-hand coordination as it relates to acquired brain injury. Dr. Rizzo has been recognized as a Top 40 under 40 by Crain’s for his industry-leading innovation and dedication to transforming the lives of those with vision deficiencies worldwide. This is a two-part Grand Rounds presentation.
In Part Two, Dr. Rizzo discusses assistive technology. There is lots of it for physical impairments, but what about for sensory impairments, such as mobility? Visually impaired patients may use a white cane while walking, but it misses large physical objects. So, they came up with something they called the Dragon Fly, which may become available commercially by the end of 2019. A form of push and clear technology, it should prove to be highly useful. He talked about advanced driver assist systems (ADAS), systems which, for example, help motor vehicle drivers by improving road safety. Rear end collisions are being reduced significantly. Why can’t we do this for falls experienced by patients with sensory impairments? This work is being done now and he gave examples of how visually impaired pedestrians are being assisted. He also described assistance devices that can help patients in their homes, such as reaching and grasping accurately.