Menger wins national Young Neurosurgeon Award from Congress of Neurological Surgeons for second consecutive year

By Shelbey Ernest
sernest@health.southalabama.edu

USA Health neurosurgeon Richard P. Menger, M.D., M.P.A., has been awarded the Samuel Hassenbusch Young Neurosurgeon Award from the Congress of Neurological Surgeons (CNS) for the second consecutive year.

“It is great to be recognized for the academic footprint all of the faculty in the neurosurgery department are helping to create,” Menger said. “I really appreciate all of the work of my coauthors – Michael Rallo from Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School and incoming Frederick P. Whiddon College of Medicine medical student, Garrett Dyess. They are forming a great research consortium.”

The Congress of Neurological Surgeons is the leading organization dedicated to advancing neurosurgery through education and innovation. This award is given to the top socioeconomic abstract selected amongst the thousands of abstracts submitted to the Congress of Neurological Surgeons annual meeting.

His abstract, “Impact of COVID-19 on Neurosurgical Utilization and Reimbursement,” looked at the impact of the COVID-19 restrictions placed on neurosurgery cases across the U.S. The states with the greatest restrictions completed fewer neurosurgeries and have been unable to return to their pre-COVID-19 baselines.

Menger, chief of complex spine surgery at USA Health and director of the USA Health Spine Institute, is an associate professor and vice chair of neurosurgery at the Whiddon College of Medicine and an assistant professor of political science at USA.

He focuses on complex spinal reconstructions for spinal deformity in children and adults. He performs minimally invasive spinal procedures and has a special expertise in the entire spectrum of state-of-the-art surgical and conservative management of complex spinal deformity and scoliosis. He is the lead editor of the textbook “The Business, Policy, and Economics of Neurosurgery.”