For generations, the path to becoming a spine surgeon began with a choice: orthopedics or neurosurgery. Jeffrey Mullin, MD, a neurosurgeon at Williamsville, N.Y.-based University at Buffalo Neurosurgery, sees a future in which that choice matters considerably less.
Across operating rooms, training programs and professional societies, the two branches of spine surgery are increasingly converging. Orthopedic and neurological surgeons are treating many of the same conditions, adopting many of the same technologies and, particularly in complex spine care, learning from one another.
The result could be a subtle but consequential shift in how the field defines itself: less by where surgeons trained and more by the work they actually do. Dr. Mullin, who specializes in complex spine surgery, has spent much of his career at the intersection of the two disciplines. He trained at Cleveland Clinic, where its Spine Institute exposed him to orthopedic and neurological spine surgeons, and later completed a fellowship under Christopher Shaffrey, MD, the chief of the spine division at Durham, N.C.-based Duke University, who specializes in both orthopedic and neurological surgery…