Dr Rick Abbott has been a member of the pediatric neurosurgical community in New York City for 30 years. He came here after completing his neurosurgical residency training at Baylor College of Medicine in July of 1986 to serve as the Fellow in Pediatric Neurosurgery at New York University Medical Center under Dr. Fred Epstein. After the completion of his training he was asked to stay on as a junio
r attending physician. In 1996 he moved with Dr Fred Epstein to Beth Israel Medical Center to help establish the Institute for Neurology and Neurosurgery (The INN). After the closure of the Pediatric Neurosurgical Service at the INN in 2004 Dr Abbott was recruited to the Children’s Hospital at Montefiore (CHAM) to assist in building a comprehensive program for the treatment of childhood tumors of the brain, spinal cord and peripheral nerves. In addition to his expertise with tumors of the nervous system in children Dr Abbott has an extensive experience in treating children with functional disorders of the nervous system such as epilepsy, cerebral palsy and injuries to nerves. In the early 1990's he developed a program for minimally invasive neurosurgery at New York University using small endoscopes to perform surgery within the brain. He moved this program first to the INN in 1996 and now to CHAM. Currently this technology is being used to treat hydrocephalus and small brain tumors. Finally, he is greatly interested in the application of computer technology in the operating room. Dr Abbott has had over 60 peer reviewed articles published in professional journals in addition to writing 20 book chapters. He serves as an editor on 2 neurosurgical journals and is editor-in-chief for an web-based textbook on pediatric neurosurgery, The ISPN Guide to Pediatric Neurosurgery, that will begin to be released to the public this year. Twenty one fellows have trained with him since the late 1980s and they now have successful practices around the world with one being the assistant Dean of a prominent medical school, 2 being departmental chairman and 7 being pediatric neurosurgery division chiefs at academic centers. Dr Abbott is currently the President of The American Society of Pediatric Neurosurgeons and in the past has served as the Chairperson of the AANS/CNS Joint Section for Pediatric Neurosurgery, Director of the American Board for Pediatric Neurological Surgeons, Chairman for the Committee for Credentialing for the American Board for Pediatric Neurological Surgeons, and President of the International Society for Pediatric Neurosurgeons.
