Dr. Philip A. Starr

Dr. Mitchel S. Berger is a nationally recognized expert in treating brain and spinal cord tumors as well as tumor-related epilepsy in adults and children. He also is a specialist in brain mapping techniques – used to identify and preserve areas of motor, sensory and language function during surgery – and an expert in using the Gamma Knife, a precise, noninvasive tool that applies radiation beams for tumor treatment. He is director of the Brain Tumor Center, director of the Center for Neurological Injury and Repair and co-director of the Adult Brain Tumor Surgery Program. Berger earned his bachelor's degree from Harvard College in 1975 and his medical degree from the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine in 1979. He completed an internship and a residency at UCSF, and was awarded a clinical fellowship in neuro-oncology by the American Cancer Society and a research fellowship by the Brain Tumor Research Center. He completed further fellowship training in neuro-oncology at UCSF and in pediatric neurosurgery at the Hospital for Sick Children, an affiliate of the University of Toronto. Berger was elected to the American Association of Neurological Surgeons' board of directors and appointed to the American Board of Neurological Surgery. Dr. Berger is highly rated in 23 conditions, according to our data. His top areas of expertise are Astrocytoma, Glioma, Glioblastoma, Awake Craniotomy, and Endovascular Embolization.

Dr. Adam Boxer is a neurologist at the UCSF Memory and Aging Center who specializes in Alzheimer's disease, frontotemporal dementia and atypical parkinsonism – in particular, corticobasal degeneration and progressive supranuclear palsy. Boxer obtained his medical and doctoral degrees as part of the Medical Scientist Training Program at New York University School of Medicine, a program funded by the National Institutes of Health. He completed a residency in neurology at Stanford University Medical Center and a fellowship in behavioral neurology at UCSF. Boxer directs the clinical neurology research unit for the Sandler Neurosciences Center at Mission Bay, as well as the clinical trials program for Alzheimer's disease and frontotemporal dementia at the Memory and Aging Center. Boxer received the Edwin Boldrey Award from the San Francisco Neurological Society in 2002 for basic research in neurological disease, the 2005 John Douglas French Alzheimer's Foundation Alzheimer's Award and a 2009 Hellman Family Foundation fellowship. Dr. Boxer is highly rated in 21 conditions, according to our data. His top areas of expertise are Progressive Supranuclear Palsy, Progressive Supranuclear Palsy Atypical, Supranuclear Ophthalmoplegia, and Corticobasal Degeneration.

Dr. Praveen Mummaneni is co-director of the UCSF Spine Center, vice chair of the neurosurgery department, lead surgeon of the UCSF Parnassus Perioperative Services and director of the minimally invasive surgery spine fellowship. He has been selected by U.S. News & World Report as one of the best doctors in the nation every year since 2005. He has also received top doctor accolades from the San Francisco Chronicle, Marin Magazine and Castle Connolly. Mummaneni earned his medical degree through the six-year BA-MD program at Boston University and completed a residency in neurological surgery at UCSF followed by a fellowship in complex spine surgery at Emory University. He also earned a master of business administration at Louisiana State University and completed a program in innovative healthcare leadership at Stanford University. Mummaneni is the UCSF Joan O'Reilly Distinguished Professor in Spinal Surgery. He leads a neuroinformatics lab at UCSF and has mentored a diverse group of medical students, residents and fellows over the past two decades. He is internationally recognized for his work on minimally invasive approaches to treating spinal deformities, spinal tumors and degenerative disease. He is the UCSF lead for the Quality Outcomes Database Spine Care Project sponsored by the American Association of Neurological Surgeons, the Minimally Invasive Surgery International Spine Study Group for spinal deformities, and the AO Spine Metastatic and Primary Tumor Research and Outcomes Network spine tumor study groups. He is also the UCSF lead for a Department of Defense grant to evaluate timing of surgery for spinal cord injury, a co-investigator of a UCSF HEAL Initiative grant from the National Institutes of Health to study back pain, and a member of the small business review panel at the National Institutes of Health. He has guest lectured at international meetings on six continents and has published more than 530 manuscripts in peer-reviewed journals. He is an editor of nine textbooks on spinal surgery and serves on multiple editorial boards, including as associate editor of Neurosurgery and a previous term editor-in-chief of the Journal of Neurosurgery: Spine. Mummaneni is active in several professional organizations. He was among the first neurosurgeons to obtain active membership in the Scoliosis Research Society (SRS) and to win its Edgar Dawson Fellowship and International Traveling Fellowship. He has served as a director of SRS and is now secretary-elect. He was also president of the San Francisco Neurological Society, president of the California Association of Neurological Surgeon, chair of the American Association of Neurological Surgeons/Congress of Neurological Surgeons Spine Section, and vice president of the Congress of Neurological Surgeons. He is currently a director of the American Board of Neurological Surgery. Dr. Mummaneni is highly rated in 21 conditions, according to our data. His top areas of expertise are Spondylolisthesis, Lordosis, Cervical Spondylosis, Spinal Fusion, and Laminectomy.