Newswise — Robert H. Rosenwasser, M.D., F.A.C.S., F.A.H.A., professor and chair, Department of Neurological Surgery at Jefferson Medical College of Thomas Jefferson University; and co-director of the Stroke Program at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital has been named to the first endowed chair in the department’s history. This endowment honors the former chair, Jewell L. Osterholm, M.D., who led the department for two decades.
“It is my honor to be the recipient of this Professorship named after such a high-caliber physician who established the excellent clinical and research reputation that Jefferson’s Department of Neurological Surgery is known for,” said Dr. Rosenwasser. “Dr. Osterholm created a distinguished legacy during his career here as not only an outstanding physician dedicated to his patients, but also as a world renowned researcher, inventor and educator. He is a friend and mentor to me and I am delighted to be able to follow in his footsteps.”
Robert H. Rosenwasser, M.D., F.A.C.S., F.A.H.A.Robert H. Rosenwasser, M.D., F.A.C.S., F.A.H.A., has revolutionized neurological surgery on the strength of his vision and skill, pioneering lifesaving procedures that have benefited many thousands of patients. Dr. Rosenwasser received his doctor of medicine degree from Louisiana State University in 1979. He completed his neurosurgical residency at Temple University Hospital in 1985 and his fellowships in neurovascular surgery at the University of Western Ontario in 1984. He then returned to Temple, serving in numerous leadership roles, including director of the neurosurgical intensive care unit, deputy director of the department, director of the cerebrovascular laboratory and director of the neurosurgical residency training program. In 1993, he completed a fellowship in a second specialty, interventional neuroradiology, at New York University under the renowned Alejandro Berenstein, M.D. He joined Jefferson the next year as a professor at the University and director of interventional neuroradiology at the Jefferson Hospital for Neuroscience. A decade later, he was appointed chair of the department. The Department of Neurological Surgery has become internationally renowned under his leadership as chair, drawing patients from all corners of the world.
Dr. Rosenwasser performs more lifesaving neurovascular surgeries every year than any other American physician. He pioneered endovascular coiling, a procedure that can provide startlingly improved outcomes for aneurysm patients, and his groundbreaking work with intracranial stents has provided relief for many with previously untreatable conditions. In 2007, he won the Hugo Rizzoli Lecturer award from Walter Reed Army Medical Center’s Department of Neurosurgery in Washington, D.C., for his “pivotal role in shaping how the military approaches neurovascular disease.”
He has published more than 250 peer reviewed articles, abstracts and book chapters. He has co-edited four textbooks on cerebral ischemia, cerebral arteriovenous malformations and interventional neuroradiology/endovascular neurosurgery.
Dr. Rosenwasser is a member of the American Association of Neurological Surgeons, the Congress of Neurological Surgeons, the American Academy of Neurological Surgery and the American College of Surgeons. He is past president of the Society of University Neurosurgeons.
Jewell L. Osterholm, M.D., F.A.C.S., F.A.H.A.An ingenious scientist, gifted surgeon and esteemed mentor, Jewell L. Osterholm, M.D., F.A.C.S., F.A.H.A., laid the foundation for the national prominence that the Jefferson Department of Neurological Surgery enjoys today.
His introduction to medicine started on a smaller scale. As a teenager in the Army, he found doing urine analyses at a hospital “inspirational.” He later turned down a congressional appointment to West Point, intent on entering medicine as soon as possible. He earned his degree at Washington University in 1957 and went on to the Montreal Neurologic Institute of McGill University for post-graduate training in neuropathology, neurology and neurosurgery. He left for Philadelphia in 1963, joining the neurosurgery team at Hahnemann Medical College and becoming the division chair four years later.
With a large surgical practice and active research program, Dr. Osterholm left Hahnemann to become chair of Jefferson’s Department of Neurosurgery in 1974. He considers the appointment his greatest achievement.
At Jefferson, Dr. Osterholm gained national prominence as an expert on spinal cord injury. His interest was joined by physicians in rehabilitation medicine and orthopedic surgery, leading to the establishment of the Regional Spinal Cord Injury Center of the Delaware Valley. Today, the center, now affiliated with Magee Rehabilitation Hospital, is one of only 14 in the country to hold the federal government’s highest designation.
Dr. Osterholm built a robust research program at Jefferson. In the late 1970s, the emphasis shifted from spinal cord trauma to the study of stroke and the relief of cerebra ischemia and cellular anoxia. He holds 59 U.S. patents on a stroke procedure he developed and won “inventor of the year” from the Intellectual Property Owners Association in 1984.
Throughout Dr. Osterholm’s 20-year tenure as chair at Jefferson and later as a practitioner, patients knew him as an empathetic physician and master diagnostician. Residents knew him as the consummate physician. He relished his role as mentor. “Training residents is a full-time effort,” he said. “But it is more than rewarded by their enthusiasm and dedication.” He considers training young neurosurgeons the “highest intellectual and moral challenge and the best work I could do.”
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