Bruce Frankel, MD

Dr. Bruce Frankel is a Professor and Chair of the Division of Neurosurgery at SIU School of Medicine. Dr. Frankel completed his medical training at the Syracuse College of Medicine in New York. His focused neurosurgical interests have involved the treatment of patients with neuro-oncological problems of the brain and spine. Currently, his clinical interests include expanding minimally invasive spinal applications using endoscopy, robotics, and navigation to treat complex degenerative, traumatic, and oncological disorders of the spine. This has included both clinical and research & development activities to drive innovation. He has published and obtained federal and private grant funding for research in these areas, further driving the design, validation and use of novel drugs and devices he has developed. He believes it is important to continually challenge himself and others to improve on treatments for clinical problems encountered daily. Throughout his career, he has enjoyed a multidisciplinary collaborative approach to problem-solving. During his tenure as Medical Director of The Institute for Applied Neurosciences at the Medical University of South Carolina, he built a uniquely functional infrastructure marrying the know-how of engineers, business development and intellectual property experts from industry with academic clinicians. As a result, he has had over 16 U.S. and International patents issued, and 10 medical device licenses granted. Several of these methods and devices are used regularly in operating rooms worldwide.

In his passion for training the next generation of neurosurgeons, he supports a structured resident training program with strong didactic and clinical experience. With an emphasis on a strong neuroscience foundation, residents advance clinically from simple to more complex treatments of neurosurgical disease. Additionally, neurosurgical residents are encouraged to identify sub-specialty interests that will be developed both clinically and scientifically during their residency tenure. His goal is for the faculty to teach the residents an understanding of past and present treatment options and encourage innovation and creativity to establish a new standard of care.