Neurosurgeon
Cedars Sinai
Los Angeles, California, United States
J. Patrick Johnson, MD, MS, FAANS, FACS is a renowned neurosurgeon specializing in spinal disorders and is the Director of the Spine Center at Cedars Sinai Medical Center since 2001. He is currently a Professor of Neurosurgery, Director of the Spine Fellowship Program and serves as the Director of the Spine Stem Cell Research Program at the Cedars Sinai Spine Center.
He was born and raised in Montana, the son of the first neurosurgeon in the northern Rocky Mountain five state region, and then obtained a degree in Chemistry with Honors at The Citadel in Charleston, South Carolina. He then attained both his MD and Master’s degree in neuroanatomy and neurophysiology from the Oregon Health Sciences University in Portland, Oregon.
He trained as a surgical intern and neurosurgical resident at UCLA. He was a Fellow at the University of Tennessee in spinal surgery and at the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery in London, England. He served as Director of the UCLA Comprehensive Spine Center from 1993-2001 and was recruited to Cedars Sinai in 2001 as the lead neurosurgeon in developing the largest spine surgery program in the Western US and established a combined neurosurgery and orthopedic fellowship program producing over 80 fellowship trained spine surgeons and many holding key leadership positions in the discipline of spinal surgery.
His research focused on developing new surgical technologies including computer guided and robotic surgery applications and studying human performance factors in the operating room. Clinical intersts include motion preservation procedures of non-fusion surgery and artificial discs including conducting FDA/IDE clinical trials for two artificial disc devices, spinal endoscopy and minimally invasive surgical procedures. He has served as a consultant for research and development of new and emerging technologies including facet arthroplasty. He has been involved in conducting stem cell clinical research with the Cedars Regenerative Medicine Institute injecting genetically engineered fetal stem cells into the spinal cord of ALS patients. Dr. Johnson has published more than 400 manuscripts, abstracts, books and book chapters in peer-reviewed journals and has performed over 11,000 surgical procedures.
Dr. Johnson has served as a Director of the California Association of Neurosurgeons, and he is an active member in professional organizations that include: The Congress of Neurological Surgeons (CNS), American Association of Neurological Surgeons (AANS), American College of Surgeons (ACS), North American Spine Society (NASS), Los Angeles County Medical Association (LACMA), the Western Neurological Society (WNS) and the Scoliosis Research Society (SRS).
His outside interests include the family cattle ranch in Montana, serving as a volunteer for the Justin Sports Medicine Team for professional rodeo athletes, a Concussion Consultant for the NFL as a sideline physician evaluating injured football players. He has served as a volunteer for Health Volunteers Overseas, the Foundation for International Education in Neurosurgery and the US Army Hospital in Landstuhl, Germany. He is now the President and CEO of the Spine Institute Foundation that is non-profit education and research entity promoting education of spine fellowship trainees as the future leaders in spinal surgery.
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Sunday, May 5, 2024
2:34 PM – 2:39 PM CT