The work of Dr. Darren Orcbach, MD, PhD and Dr. Peter Weinstock, MD, PhD, both members of the Tri-I graduating class of 1998, made possible the first successful fetal intracranial intervention earlier this month. Denver Coleman was diagnosed with life-threatening Vein of Galen Malformation (VOGM) and was treated in utero by Dr. Orbach, the first time such a procedure was done.
Their work was featured on CNN with Sanjay Gupta this month and was published in Stroke.
Key to the process that enabled the procedure was provided by Dr. Weinstock and the Boston Children's Hospital Immersive Design Systems whos engineers used 3D printers and special effects molds to create unique simulators that helped Dr. Orbach and team achieve FDA clearance that would otherwise be difficult given anatomic constraints related to alternate models.
Their paper describing the simulators can be read here.
Darren Orbach MD PhD, is currently the Chief of Neurointerventional Radiology, and Peter Weinstock MD PhD the Senior Assoc Critical Care and Executive Director of the Boston Children’s Simulation Program. They met at the Tri-I MD-PhD Program in 1990 (when it was a bi-institutional collaboration between Rockefeller University and Weill Cornell) and have been dear friends and collaborators ever since. Over the years Orbach and Weinstock have grown a research program together doing science fusing interventional neuroradiology with enabling simulation and immersive technologies to create and deliver new innovations to children with intracranial malformations.
This breakthrough procedure represents the fruits of their collaboration as physician-scientists and a new life-saving treatment for babies like Denver.
Category:
- Alumni