Ralph Mobbs

Last updated

Ralph Mobbs is an Australian neurosurgeon who specialises in spinal surgery. He operates at Prince of Wales Private and Public Hospital. He sees patients at his clinic (the NeuroSpine Clinic) and at an additional clinic in Bowral.

Contents

Early life and education

Mobbs attended the University of New South Wales (UNSW), graduating with a Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS) in 1993. [1] He completed his Master of Surgery (MS) from UNSW in 2002. He qualified as a neurosurgeon in 2003.

Career

Mobbs trained in Sydney and worked for some time in Canada. He currently sub-specialises is spinal neurosurgery. He is the founder and director of the NeuroSpine Clinic at the Prince of Wales Private Hospital, the founder of AustSpine (acquired by LifeHealthCare in 2009), Jasper MedTech (JMT), the Wearables and Gait Assessment Research group (WAGAR) and the NeuroSpine Surgery Research group (NSURG). He is an Associate professor of Neurosurgery at the University of New South Wales (UNSW). [2]

His interests include surgical technique and work flow, design and development of medical prosthesis, patient-specific implants (PSIs), neuroscience research and teaching.

Mobbs has received media attention for his interests in personalisation of medicine, in particular for PSIs [3] [4] [5] and has written multiple commentary pieces on the future of personalisation of medical implants, [4] He was the first surgeon to design and implant a 3D printed spinal prosthesis into a cancer patient. [6]

Research work

Mobbs is the chair of the NSURG and currently supervises students, MS and PhD researchers. NSURG maintains a high-volume research program with hundreds of publications. He has a wide scope of research interest which include surgical techniques, 3-Dimensional (3D) printing of PSIs, [7] medical wearable devices and stem cell therapies for spinal spondylotic changes. [1] [8] He is also the current Editor-in-chief of the Journal of Spine Surgery. [9]

Being the principal of JMI, a medical design company, Mobbs is involved in the design of various surgical instruments and implants. These include tissue expansion systems, endoscopic retractors, percutaneous fusion systems, biomaterials for prostheses, integral fixation systems and instrument simplification. His designs have been implanted in over 250,000 patients worldwide over two decades.

Dr Mobbs' current research interest for medical wearables focuses on using medical wearable technologies/implants to improve health, monitor chronic illness, support postoperative recovery and eventually play a major role in assisting primary care physicians. His research team (WAGAR) published the first article on the use of wearables for objective/subjective assessment of post operative spinal patients. [10]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Neurosurgery</span> Medical specialty of disorders which affect any portion of the nervous system

Neurosurgery or neurological surgery, known in common parlance as brain surgery, is the medical specialty concerned with the surgical treatment of disorders which affect any portion of the nervous system including the brain, spinal cord and peripheral nervous system.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Laminectomy</span> Surgical removal of a lamina

A laminectomy is a surgical procedure that removes a portion of a vertebra called the lamina, which is the roof of the spinal canal. It is a major spine operation with residual scar tissue and may result in postlaminectomy syndrome. Depending on the problem, more conservative treatments may be viable.

Ralph Bingham Cloward was an American neurosurgeon, best known for his innovations in spinal neurosurgery. Cloward is known for the development of the Posterior Lumbar Interbody Fusion and Anterior Cervical Discectomy and Fusion. Cloward moved from Chicago to Hawaii in 1938, becoming the state's lone neurosurgeon. He is well known for his work treating victims of brain injuries after the Pearl Harbour attack in 1941.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Spinal fusion</span> Immobilization or ankylosis of two or more vertebrae by fusion of the vertebral bodies

Spinal fusion, also called spondylodesis or spondylosyndesis, is a neurosurgical or orthopedic surgical technique that joins two or more vertebrae. This procedure can be performed at any level in the spine and prevents any movement between the fused vertebrae. There are many types of spinal fusion and each technique involves using bone grafting—either from the patient (autograft), donor (allograft), or artificial bone substitutes—to help the bones heal together. Additional hardware is often used to hold the bones in place while the graft fuses the two vertebrae together. The placement of hardware can be guided by fluoroscopy, navigation systems, or robotics.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anterior cervical discectomy and fusion</span> Surgical procedure

Anterior cervical discectomy and fusion (ACDF) is a surgical procedure to treat nerve root or spinal cord compression by decompressing the spinal cord and nerve roots of the cervical spine with a discectomy, followed by inter-vertebral fusion to stabilize the corresponding vertebrae. This procedure is used when other non-surgical treatments have failed.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Artificial facet replacement</span>

An artificial facet replacement is a joint prosthesis intended to replace the natural facets and other posterior elements of the spine, restoring normal motion while providing stabilization of spinal segments. It is typically used as an adjunct to laminectomy, laminotomy, neural decompression, and facetectomy, in lieu of standard lumbar fusion. The prosthesis is indicated for back and leg pain caused by central or lateral spinal stenosis, degenerative disease of the facets with instability, and grade 1 degenerative spondylolisthesis with objective evidence of neurological impairment.

Mayo Hospital is one of the oldest and biggest hospitals in Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan. King Edward Medical University, one of the oldest and most prestigious medical institutions in South Asia, is attached to Mayo Hospital. Mayo Hospital is located in the heart of Old Lahore, and provides free treatment to almost all admitted patients as part of a government policy. It also has many different ward's mainly centered around the Syed A route location.

Neuronavigation is the set of computer-assisted technologies used by neurosurgeons to guide or "navigate” within the confines of the skull or vertebral column during surgery, and used by psychiatrists to accurately target rTMS. The set of hardware for these purposes is referred to as a neuronavigator.

Artificial disc replacement (ADR), or total disc replacement (TDR), is a type of arthroplasty. It is a surgical procedure in which degenerated intervertebral discs in the spinal column are replaced with artificial disc implants in the lumbar (lower) or cervical (upper) spine. The procedure is used to treat chronic, severe low back pain and cervical pain resulting from degenerative disc disease. Disc replacement is also an alternative intervention for symptomatic disc herniation with associated arm and hand, or leg symptoms.

Computer-assisted surgery (CAS) represents a surgical concept and set of methods, that use computer technology for surgical planning, and for guiding or performing surgical interventions. CAS is also known as computer-aided surgery, computer-assisted intervention, image-guided surgery, digital surgery and surgical navigation, but these are terms that are more or less synonymous with CAS. CAS has been a leading factor in the development of robotic surgery.

Alfred Washington Adson was an American physician, military officer, and surgeon. He was in medical practice with the Mayo Clinic and the Mayo Graduate School of Medicine of the University of Minnesota at Rochester, Minnesota. He was associated with the development of the Section of Neurological Surgery which was first established at Mayo in 1919. He functioned as its chair until 1946. He undertook pioneering neurosurgery and gave his name to a medical condition, a medical sign, a medical diagnostic manoeuvre, and medical instruments.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Roger Härtl</span>

Roger Härtl is a board-certified neurological surgeon at Weill-Cornell Medical College and NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital. He is Director of Spinal Surgery at the Weill Cornell Brain & Spine Center in New York and the neurosurgeon for the New York Giants. Härtl has been named by Becker's Spine Review as one of the Top 50 Spine Surgeons in the United States as well as one of the Top 10 Spine and Neurosurgeon Leaders at Non-Profit Hospitals. He was named one of New York's Top Doctors by New York magazine after he saved the life of New York firefighter Eugene Stolowski, whose leap from a burning building left him critically injured.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nicholas Theodore</span> American neurosurgeon

Nicholas Theodore is an American neurosurgeon and researcher at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. He is known for his work in spinal trauma, minimally invasive surgery, robotics, and personalized medicine. He is Director of the Neurosurgical Spine Program at Johns Hopkins and Co-Director of the Carnegie Center for Surgical Innovation at Johns Hopkins.

The Mischer Neuroscience Institute is a combined research and education effort between the Vivian L. Smith Department of Neurosurgery and the Department of Neurology at McGovern Medical School at UTHealth Houston and Memorial Hermann Hospital. Located in Houston, the Institute draws patients from around the world for specialized treatment of diseases of the brain and spine. It was the first center in Texas and one of only a few institutions in the country to fully integrate neurology, neurosurgery, neuroradiology, neuro-oncology, spine surgery, pain medicine and neurorehabilitation.

Arthur L. Jenkins III is an American fellowship-trained neurosurgeon, co-director of the Neurosurgical Spine Program, and Director of Spinal Oncology and Minimally Invasive Spinal Surgery (MIS) Program at the Mount Sinai Hospital, New York. Additionally, he is an associate professor of Neurosurgery and of Orthopedic Surgery at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine. Dr. Jenkins has multiple patents and patent applications for spine-related implants and support systems, and is developing new minimally invasive treatments for patients with cancer that has spread to the spine. He is an innovator in the treatment of acute spinal cord injury as well as degenerative and congenital anomalies of the spine, taking a minimally invasive or minimal-impact approach where possible. He is board certified in Neurological Surgery and is licensed in New York and Connecticut.

The National Center for Spinal Disorders is located in the 12th District of Budapest, Hungary, on Királyhágó Street. It is the only hospital in Hungary that covers virtually the entire diagnostic and treatment spectrum of spinal disorders from diagnosis and non-surgical and surgical treatments through to rehabilitation. It is financed by the National Health Insurance Fund.

Neuroplastic or neuroplastic and reconstructive surgery is the surgical specialty involved in reconstruction or restoration of patients who undergo surgery of the central or peripheral nervous system. The field includes a wide variety of surgical procedures that seek to restore or replace a patient's skull, face, scalp, dura, the spine and/or its overlying tissues.

Ashish Suri is an Indian neurosurgeon, medical academic and a professor at the Department of Neurosurgery of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Delhi. He was one of the group of surgeons who performed the first 3D brain surgery and the first surgery to implant a spinal cord stimulator in India. Known for his work in Endoscopic endonasal surgery and neurooncology and is a member of the executive committee of the Indian Society of Neuro-Oncology. The Department of Biotechnology of the Government of India awarded him the National Bioscience Award for Career Development, one of the highest Indian science awards, for his contributions to biosciences, in 2014.

Charles Anthony Fager was born in Nassau, Bahamas, British West Indies. He had a long career as a neurosurgeon in the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">B. K. Misra</span> Neurosurgeon

Dr. Basant Kumar Misra is a neurosurgeon specialising in treating brain, spine, cerebrovascular and peripheral nervous system disorders, injuries, pathologies and malformations. He is the Vice-President of the World Federation of Neurosurgical Societies, and the former President of the Asian Australasian Society of Neurological Surgeons, and the Neurological Society of India. He is a recipient of Dr. B. C. Roy Award, the highest medical honour in India.

References

  1. 1 2 "Associate Professor Ralph Jasper Mobbs". UNSW Research.
  2. "Associate Professor Ralph Mobbs". Unsw.edu.au.
  3. Reynolds, Emily (26 February 2016). "3D printed vertebrae implanted in 'world first' surgery". Wired UK.
  4. 1 2 "3D Spinal Implants: A Glimpse into the Future". SpineUniverse.
  5. "3D Printing Human Vertebrae". The Alliance of Advanced BioMedical Engineering.
  6. Duffy, Conor (22 February 2016), Australian surgeon inserts 3D-printed vertebrae in world-first, Australian Broadcasting Corporation
  7. Bogle, Ariel (25 February 2016). "Man has 3D-printed vertebrae implanted in world-first surgery". Mashable.
  8. z3508948 (4 April 2016). "Medical scientists develop 'game changing' stem cell repair system". UNSW Newsroom. Retrieved 4 April 2018.
  9. "Editorial Team - Journal of Spine Surgery". jss.amegroups.com. Retrieved 4 April 2018.
  10. Mobbs, Ralph J.; Phan, Kevin; Maharaj, Monish; Rao, Prashanth J. (August 2016). "Physical Activity Measured with Accelerometer and Self-Rated Disability in Lumbar Spine Surgery: A Prospective Study". Global Spine Journal. 6 (5): 459–464. doi:10.1055/s-0035-1565259. ISSN   2192-5682. PMC   4947409 . PMID   27433430.