Surgeon recognized for technical skills

Fady Charbel, head of neurological surgery.

Fady Charbel, the Dr. Richard L. Fruin and Gertrude W. Fruin Professor and head of neurological surgery in the UIC College of Medicine, received the Cushing Award for Technical Excellence and Innovation in Neurosurgery at the 2017 American Association of Neurological Surgeons meeting held in April in Los Angeles. The award was established in 2013 to honor an AANS member for technical prowess and skill and/or innovation in the development of new procedures which have become part of the arsenal neurosurgeons use to treat disease or trauma.

Charbel is the developer of NOVA, Noninvasive Optimal Vessel Analysis, a software program that can quantify the volume, velocity and direction of blood flowing through any major vessel in the brain using standard MRI equipment.

NOVA technology has led to numerous discoveries about the nature of strokes. A 2015 paper published in JAMA Neurology reported that stroke patients with low blood flow in the back of the brain are at greater risk for a second stroke.

Charbel’s NOVA technology received runner-up recognition by the 2006 Wall Street Journal Technology Innovation Awards. Charbel was the 2002 UIC Inventor of the Year and has been named a Top Surgeon by Consumers’ Research Council of America.

Charbel is also co-developer with Transonic Systems of the Charbel Micro-Flowprobe. The Flowprobe is applied to cerebral vessels for on-the-spot measurements of blood flow to help guide the surgery and help surgeons place clips in the brain vasculature to treat aneurysms without compromising normal blood flow.