This article highlights a patient treated by Dr. Wael Asaad, whose successful neurosurgical procedure for Obsessive–Compulsive Disorder (OCD) underscores both the promise of psychiatric neurosurgery and the ethical considerations it raises.

“Ziya Gokaslan, MD, neurosurgeon-in-chief at Rhode Island and The Miriam hospitals, stood before his patient, a 24-year-old woman. She arrived at the Rhode Island Hospital emergency department the previous night, trembling with excruciating pain, a loss of balance and migraine…

Glioblastoma is a relentless cancer, known for its poor prognosis and rapid growth rate. Some glioblastomas double in size in just five days. Dr. Clark Chen, a neurosurgeon with Brown University Health's Norman Prince Neurosciences Institute, emphasizes the need for immediate treatment.

Investigators at Brown University Health are studying whether an implant in the brain can help improve hand movement for people who have suffered strokes.
Preliminary results at the Cleveland Clinic have looked promising, and Brown University Health, the former Lifespan, is taking part in the next stage of the clinical trial, according to Dr. Wael F. Asaad, lead investigator for the study at Brown University Health… ‘You get useful function back,” Asaad said in an interview. “The preliminary results looked really strong…’

Essential tremors affect about 10 million people in this country. Deep brain stimulation is a very popular and effective option, but it requires surgery. That’s why many are opting for a less invasive procedure that, turns out, is also very effective.

Specialists in Rhode Island used new artificial intelligence technology to create a digital clone of 21-year-old Alexis Bogan’s voice after her major brain surgery damaged the part of her brain that controls eating and voice functions.

The Norman Prince Neurosciences Institute recently announced the addition of Dr. Clark C. Chen as director of the Brain Tumor Program.

The Norman Prince Neurosciences Institute has announced that Dr. Christine Kyuyoung Lee will serve as the director of its Endoscopic Skull Base Surgery Program and co-director of skull base surgery.

Dr. Wael Asaad discusses Focused Ultrasound, an innovative, non-invasive treatment for Essential Tremor and Parkinson’s Disease, on WPRI.

A study led by Brown Neurosurgery resident Rohaid Ali suggests that artificial intelligence tools continue to perpetuate gender and racial bias through the images they generate.

It’s something all future doctors learn in medical school: how to communicate informed consent to patients. Yet medical forms are littered with impenetrable jargon, making it hard for lay people to understand exactly what they’re signing up for. Dr. Rohaid Ali, a neurosurgery resident at Brown University in Providence, grew fed up with the forms and enlisted ChatGPT to help translate them into regular English.

David Borton and Jared Fridley’s Intelligent Spine Interface (ISI) implant, funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), aims to restore movement to victims of spinal injury.

The Brown Neurosurgery Department recently published two preprints comparing the performances of Artificial Intelligence Large Language Models ChatGPT, GPT-4 and Google Bard in the neurosurgery written board examinations and the neurosurgery oral board preparatory question bank. They found that these AI models were able to pass the written exams with ‘flying colors.’

Brown University scientists are working together to research the effectiveness of spinal implants on paralyzed veterans and other patients.

Rhode Island Hospital has opened a new center to help diagnose an often misdiagnosed disorder in older patients. Normal Pressure Hydrocephalus (NPH) is an abnormal buildup of cerebrospinal fluid in the brain. When this happens, it causes neurological symptoms that may be diagnosed as Alzheimer's or Parkinson's Diseases... "They decline quite rapidly," added Dr. Petra Klinge, a surgeon, and director of the CSF Disorders of the Brain and Spine Center at Rhode Island Hospital.

Researchers held a news conference at Rhode Island Hospital to present results from a vaccine trial for glioblastoma, the most common and lethal form of brain cancer....

Rhode Island Hospital is using new robotic technology designed with improved accuracy and safety to help guide neurosurgeons through brain and spine surgeries.

Cutting-edge technology is now available in Rhode Island, allowing doctors to perform minimally invasive spine surgery. The ExcelsiusGPS Robotic Navigation System is the product of a partnership between Lifespan and Brown University. "The robot actually helps me do it a little more efficiently, minimally invasively," said Dr. Adetokunbo Oyelese, the director of the Norman Prince Spine Institute at Rhode Island Hospital.

Norman Prince Neurosciences Institute has expanded its Computer-Assisted Navigation Technology offerings with the addition of two new Globus ExcelsiusGPS robotic surgical systems at Rhode Island Hospital. Surgeons at the Institute recently performed the first ExcelsiusGPS-guided brain and spine surgeries at Rhode Island Hospital. The hospital is the first site in New England to use the ExcelsiusGPS for both cranial and spinal applications.

He is Dr. Eric Wong and he comes to Lifespan from Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston where he served as co-director of the Brain Tumor Center and the neuro-oncology unit.

An estimated 10 million Americans are living with a condition most commonly misdiagnosed as Parkinson’s Disease called essential tremor (ET), and doctors in Rhode Island are able to help treat it with neurosurgical technology.

Neurosurgeons at the Norman Prince Neurosciences Institute are now offering an innovative, incision-less brain surgery that aims to treat patients suffering from tremors – and it’s available here in Rhode Island.

Dr. Wael Asaad, who received his PhD in systems neuroscience from Massachusetts Institute of Technology and his medical degree from Yale University, is the director of the Functional Neurosurgery and Epilepsy division at the Norman Prince Neurosciences Institute, which is headquartered at Rhode Island Hospital. He performed the first incisionless thalamotomy procedure this summer, making the hospital the second provider in New England to offer the treatment.

Rhode Island Hospital, The Miriam Hospital and Newport Hospital have all received the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association’s Get With The Guidelines – Stroke Gold Plus Quality Achievement Award.

A team of Brown neurosurgeons used new technology to target the section of the brain responsible for severe tremors during a successful procedure on July 30. Dr. Wael Asaad, director of Norman Prince Neurosciences Institute’s functional neurosurgery and epilepsy program, performed the procedure.