2024 Annual Meeting
HONORED GUEST SPEAKERS
Luca Regli, MD
Professor and Chairman
Dept of Neurosurgery
Clinical Neuroscience Center
University Hospital Zurich
University of Zurich
Zurich – Switzerland
Luca Regli studied Medicine at the University of Lausanne, and trained under the mentorship of Dr. Nicolas de Tribolet. His commitment to advancing microsurgical techniques led him to undertake a research and clinical fellowship at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, USA, working closely with Dr. Fredric B. Meyer and Dr. David Piepgras. During this period, he specialized in the microsurgical treatment of complex vascular and skull base lesions.
Upon completing his fellowship, Luca Regli returned to the University Hospital Lausanne. His expertise was recognized with an appointment as full professor and chair of neurosurgery at the University Medical Center of Utrecht, the Netherlands, in 2008. A testament to his dedication, Luca Regli was subsequently invited to assume the position of full professor and chair of the Department of Neurosurgery at the University of Zurich and the University Hospital Zurich in 2012. This appointment placed him in the lineage of renowned neurosurgeons like Dr. U. Krayenbuehl, Dr. M. G. Yaşargil, and Dr. Y. Yonekawa. The department remains an international reference center for cerebrovascular diseases, skull base surgery and neuro-oncology.
Luca Regli’s research projects have been driven by clinical inquiries about cerebral hemodynamics, and applications of machine intelligence in clinical neuroscience with the direct goal of improving patient care. His focus extends to pioneering surgical techniques for cerebral revascularization and intra-operative imaging. His academic contributions are evident in a prolific publication record, comprising over 450 articles in peer-reviewed journals and 18 chapters in textbooks. He is an appreciated guest speaker in meetings. His stature within the neurosurgical community is further underscored by the frequent invitations as honored guest speaker and numerous referrals of patients with complex vascular and skull base lesions, a proof to his widely acknowledged leadership in this domain.
Curtin Call Radiology Lecturer
Claudia F.E. Kirsch MD, FACR, FASFNR
Professor
Department of Radiology and Biomedical Imaging in Neuroradiology
Yale University
A Fellow in the American College of Radiology (ACR) and American Society of Functional Neuroradiology, and currently completing her PhD Thesis research with neopath.org at the University of Sheffield School of Clinical Dentistry on “Viral mediated disease in the skull base, head and neck”, utilizing high resolution 7T MRI at the BioMedical Engineering and Imaging Institute (BMEII) at Mount Sinai Medical Center and artificial intelligence to enhance understanding of how viruses affect the skull base.
Dr. Kirsch received the American Society of Neuroimaging Oldendorf award for MRI 2COSY of spinal cord trauma, numerous research, and additional awards for Primal Pictures Anatomy.tv and educational interactive 3-D software of head and neck anatomy. She is on the Editorial board of Clinical Imaging and Frontiers, has numerous peer-reviewed publications and is former Vice-Chair of Expert Panel on Neuroimaging for the ACR Appropriateness Use Criteria Committee, and American Society of Neuroradiology Collaborative Committee for Practice Parameters in Computed Tomography of the Head and Neck. She was recently elected to the American Society of Head and Neck Radiology (ASHNR) Executive Committee as the Senior Member at Large and is currently Chair of the ASHNR Research Committee. She is a member of the NASBS Program Committee, Value Based Healthcare Committee and Research Committee.
Her current focus are on skull base and viral mediated pathology in the head and neck including Idiopathic Intracranial Hypertension, Human Papilloma virus (HPV), Epstein Barr Virus (EBV) and SARs-CoV-2 COVID19. Phase III trials, and a Primary Investigator Grant recipient, analyzing Pseudotumor Cerebri. Prior grants and research led to national and international presentations, including a TEDx talk on imaging how cancer “hitchhikes” via perineural invasion through the skull base. As a Neuroradiologist and PhD researcher she believes in fostering positive teaching, collaborative and inspiring environments that lead to improved patient outcomes, innovative teaching and research, and scientific advancement.
Harry van Loveren M.D.
David W. Cahill Professor and Chair
Department of Neurosurgery and Brain Repair
Dr. Harry van Loveren serves as David W. Cahill Professor and Chair of the Department of Neurosurgery and Brain Repair, as well as Interim-Chair of Internal Medicine at the Morsani College of Medicine, University of South Florida. He is the Director of the USF Health Neuroscience Institute, and Director of the Tampa General Hospital Neuroscience Institute. He is the vice-Chair of the USF Physicians Group Executive Committee, serves on the Board of Directors of the Academic Medical Group (USFTGP, an affiliation of the USF and TGH Physicians) and on the Advisory Board of the Tampa General Rehabilitation Hospital. Currently Dr. van Loveren is the Director of the USF Skull Base Surgery Team and regularly performs complex brain tumor surgery. He also conducts clinical research with a current $28 million grant for the study of Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy for TBI and PTSD in Veterans.
He is a Summa Cum Laude graduate of the University of Cincinnati with a B.S. in Chemistry. He completed training in Neurosurgery with the combined programs of the Mayfield Neurological Institute and the University of Cincinnati Department of Neurosurgery with an enfolded fellowship in the neurophysiology laboratory of Professors Jean Siegfried M.D and Helmut Haas PhD at the University of Zurich, Switzerland. He served as vice-Chair of the U.C. Neurosurgery Department. He also served as Interim-Dean of USF Health, Morsani College of Medicine. Dr. van Loveren is a founding member of the North American Skull Base Society (NASBS), a founding member of the Mayfield Neurosurgical Society, and Past-President of the Southern Neurosurgical Society.
Dr. van Loveren has authored more than one-hundred and fifty peer-reviewed articles, fifty book chapters, and a two-volume Atlas of Operative Microneurosurgery that won the prestigious Association of Medical Illustrators Award. He has presented his work at more than two-hundred and fifty national and international conferences, hosted more than sixty hands-on dissection courses demonstrating his surgical techniques, and organized more than twenty Symposia. He is a member of the American Assoiciation of Neurological Surgeon, the Congress of Neurological Surgeons, the Society of Neurological Surgeons, the Academy of Neurological Surgeons, the American Board of Neurological Surgeons, the North American Neurosurgical Society, the Southern Neurosurgical Society, and the Florida Neurosurgical Society.