Dr. Barbaro will join the IU School of Medicine Nov. 1 from the University of California, San Francisco, where he now is professor in residence of neurological surgery, co-director of the functional neurosurgery program, principal investigator of the epilepsy research program and director of the neurosurgery residency program. He is the principal investigator of a National Institutes of Health study that is evaluating surgical and radiosurgical treatment of treatment of epilepsy.
As medical director of the IU Health Neurosciences Center, Dr. Barbaro will oversee an initiative that will combine the neurosciences resources of the IU School of Medicine and IU Health. The center will include two buildings – an ambulatory care and imaging center now under construction, and a research facility expected to begin construction in the first quarter of 2012. The center will be located just south of IU Health Methodist Hospital, at West 16th Street and Senate Avenue.
Dr. Barbaro will also be the Betsey Barton Professor of Neurological Surgery at IU. He succeeds Paul Nelson, M.D., who is retiring as the first chairman of the department. Dr. Barbaro’s appointments and starting date are pending approval by the Indiana University Board of Trustees.
“As an accomplished surgeon, outstanding in assessing surgical approaches to epilepsy and other central nervous system disorders, and as a recognized researcher and educator, Dr. Barbaro will provide both expertise and leadership as we develop a state-of-the-art neurosciences center of excellence,” said D. Craig Brater, M.D., dean of the IU School of Medicine and vice president for university clinical affairs.
“Dr. Barbaro is a proven leader with the experience and vision needed to take our nationally recognized neurosciences programs to an unprecedented level,” said Samuel L. Odle, FACHE, executive vice president and chief operating officer of IU Health. “A nationally renowned neurosurgeon, educator and researcher, Dr. Barbaro has extensive expertise in developing a state-of-the-art, multi-specialty neuroscience center that can offer patients the best possible care and leading-edge treatments.”
Dr. Barbaro received his undergraduate degree from Georgetown University in 1975 and his medical degree from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine in 1979. He continued his training UCSF, serving as an intern in the Department of Surgery and then as a resident in the Department of Neurosurgery.
He joined the UCSF faculty in 1985 and has served as a professor of neurosurgery and neurology since 2000.
Dr. Barbaro performs surgery related to pain, peripheral nerve procedures and all of the epilepsy surgeries on adults at UCSF, and conducts clinical trial research designed to improve surgical procedures in epilepsy. He also has received several awards for excellence in teaching at USCF.
He is a former president of the Neurosurgical Society of America.
“It is a privilege to have Dr. Barbaro come to Indianapolis as a leader of the Goodman Campbell Brain and Spine academic mission and as the leader of the IU Health Neuroscience Center and as the chair of the IU School of Medicine Department of Neurological Surgery,” said Dr. Nelson.
“Bringing a seasoned neuroscience leader like Dr. Barbaro on board will definitely help us to realize the tremendous potential we have to advance our research and education mission for the benefit of the patients of Indiana and beyond,” said Troy Payner, M.D., vice chairman of the Department of Neurological Surgery and president of Goodman Campbell Brain and Spine.
Indianapolis Neurosurgical Group and Indiana University’s Department of Neurological Surgery merged their surgical, research and academic expertise in 2010, creating Goodman Campbell Brain and Spine to develop innovative techniques, increase the success of proven treatments and provide advanced training for the next generation of neurosurgeons.