December 2025

NEUROSCIENCES

FROM ONE SURGEON TO 17: HOW NORTHWESTERN MEDICINE EXPANDED NEUROSURGERY ACROSS THE CHICAGO SUBURBS

Northwestern Medicine has significantly grown its neurosurgery footprint across Chicago and the surrounding suburbs, added specialized technology and services, and improved access to advanced care for patients.
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A physician-led clinical integration effort that began in 2018 has led to elevated neurosurgery care across Northwestern Medicine. In addition to our team of neurosurgeons at our flagship hospital in downtown Chicago, 17 neurosurgeons now provide systemwide coverage and perform surgery at five additional hospitals.
 
This dramatic expansion has come under one unified department led by Maciej S. Lesniak, MD, chair of the Neurosurgery Department, and Babak S. Jahromi, MD, PhD, vice chair of Regional Neurosurgery. This work is also supported by local leaders who have championed neurosurgical expansion and growth at each of the suburban hospitals.

All faculty, whether at the academic medical center downtown or at suburban hospitals, serve as members within a unified department. Additionally, all neurosurgeons:
  • Serve as faculty at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine
  • Follow the same quality and patient care standards
  • Attend the same mortality and morbidity and Grand Rounds sessions
  • Collaborate at weekly conferences for spine, neurovascular and brain tumor cases

​These systemwide conferences ensure quality of care and that all our physicians benefit from collaboration and collegiality. With the increasing addition of fellowship-trained subspecialists, our regional hospitals provide near tertiary-level care, which increases access for patients in the Chicago suburbs. Patients who need quaternary care can get procedures downtown at Northwestern Memorial Hospital while doing all their pre- and post-op care closer to home.

This model is also helping patients with easier access to clinical trials. This large, diverse pool of patients from across the health system has helped Northwestern Medicine become a preferred site for clinical trials for brain tumors, neurovascular and functional disorders, and other intracranial procedures.

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