Rachael Han, a second-year medical student at Weill Cornell Medical College, was named winner of the Best Paper on Chiari award at the AANS/CNS Joint Section on Pediatric Neurological Surgery in December. The annual award, established in 2020, is given for the best paper on the topic of Chiari; it is funded by the Bobby Jones Chiari & Syringomyelia Foundation and presented at the annual meeting of the joint section.
Rachael’s winning paper (“Fourth Ventricular Subarachnoid Stent for Chiari-associated Persistent Syringomyelia”) was co-authored by three Weill Cornell Medicine neurosurgery residents (Alexandra M. Giantini Larsen, MD; John K. Chae, MD; and Andrew Garton, MD) and a prior pediatric neurosurgery fellow (Mauricio P. Medina, MD) under the guidance of senior author Jeffrey P Greenfield MD, PhD. The research demonstrated significant, early resolution of syrinx persisting after a posterior fossa decompression in Chiari patients in addition to a low complication rate with this operative technique.
“I am so impressed with the young academic talent we have on our team,” says Dr. Greenfield. “Our residents and alumni are already some of the very best young academic neurosurgeons in the field. Adding a medical student as promising as Rachael is to our roster of academic authors and investigators is incredibly gratifying to me as a mentor and a neurosurgeon.”
The Chiari CARE program at Weill Cornell is one of the leading clinical treatment centers for Chiari and related etiologies in the world. More about Chiari CARE.