People always want the best in New York: The best cup of coffee. The best Italian dinner for a romantic night out. And if you find yourself in need of a neurosurgeon, of course you want the best neurosurgeon.

But while you can find good food and drinks by reading online reviews and asking locals, finding an exceptional neurosurgeon can be a daunting task. Where do you begin?

To give patients a starting place, The New York Times Magazine and New York Magazine each published a rigorously vetted and researched list of outstanding New York physicians. Both lists feature dozens of specialties, including neurosurgery.

Each magazine used a slightly different process to come up with its carefully considered list, but the two are similar in that both rely on physicians nominating peers they believe provide the most exceptional care. (Physicians, of course, cannot self-nominate.) To appear on the list, nominees must also pass a thorough vetting of qualifications, experience and training.

We are pleased to announce that, this year, our neurosurgeons at Columbia University Irving Medical Center/NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital are listed in one or both magazines.
Dr. Robert Solomon, Department Chair*
Dr. Peter Angevine
Dr. Jeffrey Bruce
Dr. E. Sander Connolly*
Dr. Neil Feldstein*
Dr. Sean Lavine
Dr. Christopher Mandigo
Dr. Grace Mandigo
Dr. Paul McCormick*
Dr. Guy McKhann*
Dr. Philip Meyers*
Dr. Marc Otten
Dr. Donald Quest
Dr. Michael Sisti*
Dr. Christopher Winfree*

There’s more good news about Columbia Neurosurgery! Several of the doctors who appear on The New York Times Magazine list trained at Columbia early in their careers, before establishing practices at other healthcare facilities. The New York Times Magazine list designates doctors as either Super Doctors or Rising Stars, with Rising Stars practicing for fewer than ten years. In total, 31 additional Super Doctors and 18 additional Rising Stars from across the country trained at Columbia.

At Columbia, our neurosurgeons are subspecialized, which means they received additional training in a particular area of neurosurgery. The advantage to having a department full of subspecialized neurosurgeons is that appropriate expertise can be matched to the needs of a patient.

The conditions our neurosurgeons subspecialize in include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Cerebrovascular diseases: Disorders of the brain’s delicate blood vessels, including aneurysms, cerebrovascular malformation, carotid artery disease and stroke. Our cerebrovascular specialists are neurosurgeons Drs. Solomon, Connolly, Lavine and Grace Mandigo and neurointerventionalist Dr. Meyers.
• Brain tumors: Abnormal growths of tissue in the brain, including gliomas, meningiomas and pituitary tumors. They can be treated with a range of techniques, from a noninvasive method called Gamma Knife Radiosurgery to minimally invasive (endoscopic) neurosurgery. Our brain tumor specialists are Drs. Anderson, Bruce, Feldstein, McKhann, Otten and Sisti.
• Peripheral nerve disorders: Conditions that impair the function of nerves outside the brain and spinal cord. These disorders can result from tumors, injury, diabetes or other causes. Dr. Winfree is a specialist in peripheral nerve disorders.
• Epilepsy: A condition that involves recurrent seizures. For certain patients, surgery may be an option to control seizures that do not respond to medications. Our epilepsy specialists are Drs. Feldstein and McKhann.
• Movement disorders: Abnormal movements of the body that have a neurological basis, Parkinson disease being a common example. Dr. McKhann specializes in treating movement disorders.
• Spine conditions: Disorders that involve the spine or spinal cord and include everything from low back pain to spinal cord injury to spinal tumors. Drs. McCormick, Angevine, Feldstein, Christopher Mandigo, Ogden and Quest specialize in treating spine conditions at The Spine Hospital at the Neurological Institute of New York, the location for Columbia Neurosurgery’s spine experts.

Children can also develop aneurysms, brain tumors, epilepsy and other neurological conditions, but they require care different from adults. Our pediatric specialists, Drs. Anderson and Feldstein, provide expert care to children with brain and spine conditions.

Congratulations to our neurosurgeons for being recognized as outstanding doctors in New York by The New York Times Magazine and New York Magazine.

*Neurosurgeons featured in both magazines