Stephanie Greene, MD, pediatric neurosurgeon, recently joined Duke Children’s Hospital as chief of pediatric neurosurgery. Greene is a nationally recognized expert in pediatric vascular neurosurgery and congenital neurosurgical disorders. She treats a wide variety of conditions affecting the brain and spine in children, including moyamoya disease, arteriovenous malformations, cavernous malformations, tumors, hydrocephalus, trauma, craniosynostosis, and congenital abnormalities. 

In this Q&A, Greene outlines her priorities and vision for the department to provide leading pediatric neurosurgery care to patients.

In my previous role, I founded a pediatric Neurovascular Center of Excellence. I’d like to bring that expertise to create a unique Center of Excellence at Duke Children’s as well. We have an opportunity to leverage the strengths of Duke’s existing pediatric neurosurgery team and cutting-edge technologies to develop a destination program that expands access to care for children with a wide range of neurological and neurovascular conditions.

We’ll also be establishing a fetal neurosurgery program, which is a very specialized area of pediatric neurosurgery. I’ve developed fetal neurosurgical interventions in the past, and have expertise performing fetal neurosurgery. I’ll apply this experience to build a multidisciplinary fetal care program at Duke.

From the patient care perspective, I’d like to establish Duke Children’s as a ‘one-stop-shop’ that can treat and manage any pediatric condition that requires neurosurgical care. This involves building out subspecialties and support for children and their families to receive comprehensive care. It also includes outreach to our referring pediatric providers and specialists to enhance awareness that we provide this high level of service and care.

I’ve published extensively on various clinical subjects with a focus on pediatric vascular and congenital disorders, including arteriovenous malformation treatment and cavernous malformation outcomes, as well as various aspects of myelomeningocele management. I’ve also been involved with translational research that has resulted in the development of new technologies to treat fetal hydrocephalus in utero, which are close to FDA approval.

I’ll continue this work at Duke, along with clinical research to optimize patient outcomes and create more efficacious treatment guidelines.

This is a state-of-the-art academic medical center, with a warm and welcoming environment for patients and families. The level of collaboration and collegiality is impressive. In pediatric neurosurgery, about half of patients are referred due to emergent needs. The other half requires more longitudinal and multidisciplinary care.

Duke's level of care coordination and physician communication is impressive, and it supports all types of patient journeys. The patient experience here is phenomenal. People go above and beyond to make sure that patients receive the highest quality experience and best outcomes possible.