Meet Our Faculty

Image	Sepehr Sani, MD Program Director and Primary Supervisor, Stereotactic and Functional Neurosurgery Fellowship Associate Professor, Department of Neurosurgery, RUSH Medical College Sepehr Sani, MD, received his medical degree from the Medical College of Ohio. He completed his residency in neurological surgery at RUSH University in Chicago. Sani also completed two fellowships in stereotactic, functional and epilepsy neurosurgery, one at Rush University and the other at University of California in San Francisco. Sani's clinical interests include deep brain stimulation, vagal nerve stimulation, microvascular decompression, epilepsy surgery, temporal lobectomy, corpus callosotomy, hemispherectomy, Parkinson's disease, essential tremor, dystonia, Tourette syndrome, obsessive compulsive disorder, depression, headaches, epilepsy, trigeminal neuralgia, hemifacial spasm and obesity.
Image	Richard W. Byrne, MD Chairman, Department of Neurosurgery, RUSH Medical College Medical Director, University Neurosurgery The Roger C. Bone, MD, Presidential Professor, Department of Neurosurgery, RUSH Medical College Richard W. Byrne, MD, completed his undergraduate studies at the University of Illinois in 1987 and received his medical doctorate at Northwestern University Medical School in 1991. Byrne graduated from the neurosurgical residency training program at RUSH University Medical Center in 1997 and joined the faculty after additional training in epilepsy and brain tumor surgery. Byrne is a board-certified neurosurgeon who specializes in surgical treatment for epilepsy, skull base and brain tumor surgery, pituitary surgery, trigeminal neuralgia and radiosurgery. He has been actively involved in many epilepsy and brain tumor surgery trials, and has authored more than 150 manuscripts, book chapters and two textbooks on these subjects. He is co-PI on an FDA approved and NIH-funded, intracortical visual prosthesis phase 1 clinical trial for the treatment of blindness. Byrne is an active member of many professional societies and has served as: President, Neurosurgical Society of America Chairman, Board of Directors of the Interurban Neurosurgical Society Board of Directors, Congress of Neurological Surgeons Director, American Board of Neurological Surgeons Treasurer, Society of Neurological Surgeons
Image	Konstantin Slavin, MD Head of Stereotactic and Functional Neurosurgery, UI Health Professor of Neurosurgery, UI Health Konstantin Slavin, MD received his medical degree from Azerbaijan State Medical Institute, Baku, Azerbaijan. Slavin also completed a fellowship in Functional and Stereotactic Neurosurgery, Department of Neurological Surgery, OHSU, Portland, Oregon. His clinical interest includes Stereotactic and Functional Neurosurgery, Facial Pain, Trigeminal Neuralgia, Gamma Knife Stereotactic Radiosurgery. Slavin's research interests parallel his clinical expertise and include practical aspects of neuromodulation, a multitude of prospective clinical studies and pioneering research in spinal cord stimulation for cerebral vasospasm, surgical treatment for migraines, and deep brain stimulation for tremor, Parkinson's disease, and depression.
Image	Neepa J. Patel, MD Professor, Department of Neurology, Henry Ford Health System Fellowship Supervisor, Stereotactic and Functional Neurosurgery Fellowship Neepa J. Patel, MD, received her medical degree from Wayne State University, MI. Patel, also completed a fellowship in Movement Disorder, Baylor College. Patel’s research interests include Parkinson disease, Dystonia Huntington Disease and other Choreas, Tourette Syndrome, Tardive Dyskinesias, Tremors, Abnormal Movements, Restless Legs Syndrome. She is has published several peer-reviewed articles and book chapters related to movement disorders.
Image	Mitra Afshari, MD, MPH Assistant Professor, Department of Neurology, Section of Movement Disorders, RUSH Medical College Mitra Afshari, MD, MPH, is an assistant professor of Neurology at RUSH University Medical Center in Chicago, the newest member of the faculty in the Section of Movement Disorders. She is originally from Chicago, where she completed her undergraduate, medical school, and residency training at Northwestern University. She completed her fellowship in Movement Disorders at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), where she received comprehensive training in neurostimulation and neuromodulation for various Movement Disorders. During medical school, she also obtained her Masters’ in Public Health and traveled to Mexico, India, and Uganda for both clinical and research-related trips. Clinically, Afshari is adept at making decisions as it pertains to deep brain stimulation candidacy and programming, as well as performing botulinum toxin injections for dystonia, including limb injections. In addition to seeing patients, her primary research interests lie in Parkinson’s Disease, as it pertains to epidemiology, biomarkers, and clinical trials; deep brain stimulation therapy and other interventional therapies for advanced Movement disorders; telemedicine, teleneurology, and telerehabilitation; and palliative/supportive care in advanced Parkinsonian disorders. She also has interest in quality-improvement projects to enhance patient care, and medical student/resident education.
Image	Jay L. Shils, PhD, D. ABNM, FASNM Director, Neurophysiological Intraoperative Monitoring Associate Professor, Department of Anesthesiology, RUSH Medical College Jay L. Shils, PhD, received his PhD in bioengineering from the University of Pennsylvania. He also received two post-doctoral fellowships, one in Neurophysiology at Graduate Hospital, Philadelphia, PA and the second in Bioengineering at the University of Pennsylvania. Shils' areas of expertise include intraoperative neurophysiological monitoring techniques and applications, neurophysiological assessment during pedicle screw placement.