Vice-Chairman of Neurosurgery
Cleveland Clinic
Gene H. Barnett, MD, MBA is Director of the Rose Ella Burkhardt Brain Tumor and Neuro-Oncology Cenbter at Cleveland Clinic.
Dr. Barnett graduated summa cum laude from Case Western Reserve University in 1976 with a B.A. in biology and chemistry, and received his degree in medicine in 1980 from Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine. He did his residency in neurosurgery at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation, graduating in 1986. Additional training included a fellowship in Neurology at the Cleveland Clinic, serving as an honorary registrar at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, and a clinical and research fellowship at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital.
He returned to the Clinic in 1987 where he was the Clinic’s first Director of the Neurosurgical Intensive Care Unit Hw has authored over 320 peer-reviewed articles, Dr. Barnett’s principal clinical and research interests are in the areas of neuro-oncology, computer-assisted surgery and stereotactic radiosurgery. Dr. Barnett is recognized as an international leader in the areas of surgical navigation, its application with minimally invasive surgery and Gamma Knife radiosurgery. For his achievements in surgical navigation he was awarded several United States and European patents as well as the EDI Innovation Award in 1998. These accomplishments helped lead to The Clinic’s CAMIS (computer-assisted minimally invasive surgery) project, a multi-million dollar effort supported by federal and industry funding aimed at improved surgical patient care at reduced costs through the use of advanced computer and minimally invasive surgery techniques. He is currently working on refinement of cranial radiosurgical techniques, use of high-field intraoperative MRI and development of laser interstitial thermal therapy (LITT) as a treatment for brain tumors having led the first human trial of a new LITT device. He received the Clinic’s prestigious Sones Innovation Award in 2017 for his work in development of neuro-navigation.
Dr. Barnett is responsible for establishing the multidisciplinary Rose Ella Burkhardt Brain Tumor and Neuro-oncology Center of the Cleveland Clinic Neurological Institute. As its Director, he oversees and coordinates the clinical and research direction of the brain tumor program as well as being responsible for departmental budgetary, personnel, and the day-to-day administrative operation of a diverse multispecialty department at a very large and progressive academic health care institution. To advance his administrative skills he completed an executive MBA program at the Weatherhead School of Management of Case Western Reserve University in 2010.
He was elected to a five-year term on the Board of Governors of the Cleveland Clinic Foundation, having served as President of the Staff a few years earlier. He has twice been Vice-Chair of Neurosurgery, was Director of Neurological Institute Surgical Operations, and serves on several leadership committees in Surgery and the Taussig Cancer Institute. For ten years he was Director or Co-director of the Residency Program of the Department of Neurosurgery and he continues his commitment to the training of young residents. He serves as the Associate Dean of Faculty Affairs for the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine and Chairs the Committee on Appointments and Promotions.