Over the past two decades, Dr. Kassam has been the Chairman or led four Neurosurgery programs; pioneered and globally taught novel surgical procedures; founded or held leadership roles in several technology start-up companies; and, has held executive health care administration leadership roles needed to translate these innovations through Integrated Service Line delivery models. He is the Founder and CEO of Neeka Enterprises and recently served as the Chief Scientific Strategist, VP Neurosciences, and Chairman of Neurological Surgery for AdvocateAurora Health Care.
Grounded on a unique active clinical practice, Dr. Kassam has developed an exceptional experience in minimally invasive Neurosurgery. Having led teams that performed many of the first-in-man procedures, he remains a global destination surgeon.
Dr. Kassam has published over 320 peer-reviewed articles, 3 textbooks, 80 book chapters, given over 250 lectures globally and served as a distinguished guest for multiple international meetings and societies. He has an H-index of 70, RG-impact score of 47 (98th percentile), and his work has been cited over 18,000 times. He authored the 1st and 3rd most cited article in his field over the past decade and published a sentinel atlas of the human subcortical network: “The White Matter Chassis” which was placed on the 2017 Pantheon list.
Over the past year, Dr. Kassam has focused on completing a Neuro-oncology textbook and on his role as the Chief Medical Officer for the National Hockey League Alumni Association. His team will be launching a trial examining Social Determinants of Health (SDoH) and quality of life of the Alumni via a purpose-built digital wellness platform to enhance self-efficacy and peer-to-peer connectivity. This represents one of the largest decentralized multinational virtual trials in this cohort. The machine learning enhanced platforms from this trial will be foundational for more generalized trials anticipated over the years in broader populations, such as Veterans and other vulnerable cohorts subject to health equity disparities.
Additionally, with the emergence of the pandemic, Dr. Kassam has focused on resource optimization. Dr. Kassam’s team of data science engineers created and published AI-infused tools including web-based multi-parametric predictive COVID modeling that anticipate surges, hospital bed capacity and inform strategic planning. The team has further built a responsive four step econometric algorithm and a series of integrated tools at the DRG level that focus on strategic pandemic institutional recovery plans and quality-metric based performance measurements.
Dr. Kassam has developed a broad network, including being appointed as the National Hockey League Alumni Association CMO, econometrics and optics consultant for Stryker Corporation, as well as, recently partnering with JLL Property Investments to create the next generation life sciences ecosystem. This broad and deep range combined with a track record of implementing purpose-built patient-centric Integrated Service Lines across diverse ecosystems, positions him to not only provide direct patient care, but also, be uniquely capable of providing data-driven, predictive clinical and economic insights to optimize resources during a time of unprecedented need both for patient care and academic pursuit.
Dr. Kassam has emerged as a strategic thinker that can work across multiple disciplines and bring people together to make meaningful change in the service of patients.
The Society for Brain Mapping and Therapeutics (SBMT) was founded in 2004 to break boundaries in healthcare. The society promotes policies that support rapid, safe, and cost-effective translation of new technology into medicine.