Aviva Abosch, MD, PhD, has been named secretary of the American Association of Neurological Surgeons. The AANS advocates for the advancement of the field of neurological surgery through continuous innovation and education while providing exceptional patient care.
As secretary, Dr. Abosch oversees membership of the AANS, a responsibility that includes expanding membership globally and among trainees and ensuring its members are adequately represented nationally. She also is involved in strategic planning for the association, focusing on patient advocacy, training and research efforts.
“The AANS is a professional association that embraces the training of the next generation of neurosurgeons. It is committed to taking the best possible care of current patients and to supporting the innovation and research that leads to advances in care for upcoming generations of patients,” Dr. Abosch said. “These efforts of the AANS help to promote patient care not just in the United States but throughout the world.”
Dr. Abosch, the Nancy A. Keegan and Donald R. Voelte Jr. Chair of the UNMC Department of Neurosurgery, is the inaugural department chair and serves as co-director of the Nebraska Medicine Neurosciences Services. She is a leader in the field of neurosurgery, serving on many national and international committees and organizations and is a past-president of both the American Society of Stereotactic and Functional Neurosurgery and of Women in Neurosurgery.
She serves on the editorial board of the journal Neurosurgery, is secretary of the Neurosurgical Society of America, in addition to secretary of AANS, and is a member-at-large of the American Academy of Neurological Surgeons.
In her previous role for the AANS, Dr. Abosch was tasked with broadening educational opportunities for students, trainees and practitioners at all levels – an experience that will serve her well in her new role.
“Providing everyone with the opportunities that I had and that I fought for is crucial to ensuring the future of our profession and contributes to taking the best possible care of the patient populations we serve,” Dr. Abosch said.
As AANS secretary, Dr. Abosch also is involved in outreach at the national and global level, ensuring that areas without access to highly trained neurosurgeons have opportunities to improve accessibility.
The field of neurosurgery is evolving, Dr. Abosch said, and so the AANS must keep pace. Her goal as a surgeon-scientist is to continue to embrace new technology on behalf of patients, a goal that overlaps with her responsibilities as secretary at the AANS. “I work with the FDA and with the National Institutes of Health, which sponsors my research, to improve patient care,” she said. “The AANS allows me to engage on a much larger level than simply one patient at a time.”
Bradley Britigan, MD, dean of the UNMC College of Medicine, congratulated Dr. Abosch on the appointment.
“Dr. Abosch has long enjoyed national stature in her field,” Dr. Britigan said. “This appointment underscores her commitment and expertise, qualities of which her UNMC colleagues are well aware.”
Dr. Abosch describes her work as a calling.
“I don’t think of it as a job, and I don’t punch a time clock,” she said. “It is a tremendous privilege to be able to take care of patients, and I’m committed to representing and supporting U.S. neurosurgeons at the national and global level to make sure that on all fronts – clinical care, training and research – we’re doing as much as we can for our patients.”