Nicholas Theodore, MD, named chair of neurosurgery at College of Medicine – Phoenix

Award-winning teacher and researcher Nicholas Theodore, MD, MS, will join the University of Arizona College of Medicine – Phoenix as chair of the Department of Neurosurgery at Banner – University Medical Center Phoenix.

Theodore is the director of the Johns Hopkins Neurosurgical Spine Center. He is a nationally recognized expert in brain and spinal cord injury, minimally invasive spine surgeries and robotics. He treats patients with a variety of spinal disorders, including trauma, Chiari malformations, tethered spinal cord, spinal deformities, degenerative spine conditions and spinal tumors. 

Theodore has led a long and distinguished career in the field of neurosciences. He has written or co-authored more than 430 peer-reviewed journal articles and is a co-inventor on more than 30 patents for medical devices and procedures, including the development of the first real-time, image-guided surgical robot, which has gained worldwide adoption. He has received funding from the National Institutes of Health, the Department of Defense, the National Science Foundation and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency as the principal investigator of a multicenter team that developed cutting-edge implantable technologies for spinal cord injury.

In addition to joining the college, Theodore will also serve as the physician executive of the neurosciences service line at Banner Health.

“We are delighted to welcome Dr. Theodore back to the Valley and as chair of our Department of Neurosurgery,” said Daniel Post, chief executive officer of Banner – University Medical Center Phoenix. "His leadership and experience will be instrumental in our delivery of world-class neuroscience care at Banner – University Medical Center Phoenix."

Theodore is a graduate of Georgetown University School of Medicine and completed both a residency in neurosurgery and a fellowship in spinal surgery at the Barrow Neurological Institute. 

He will assume his role on Oct. 1.