The Yale Department of Neurosurgery is thrilled to announce that Ehud Mendel, MD, MBA, joined our team in September 2021. In addition to joining us as a professor of neurosurgery at Yale School of Medicine, Dr. Mendel will also serve as the Disease Center Director of the Spine Oncology Program at Smilow Cancer Hospital at Yale New Haven Hospital. He will also serve as the division chief of the Spine Section, Neurosurgery, and the executive vice-chair in the Department of Neurosurgery at Yale School of Medicine.
Dr. Mendel comes to Yale from Wexner Medical Center at The Ohio State University (OSU) and the James Cancer Hospital Solove Research Institute, where he served as the director of the Spine Oncology Program and clinical director of the Ohio State University Spine Research Institute.
While at OSU, Dr. Mendel led a multidisciplinary team that made incredible advances in oncological spine surgery. Among many things, his team pioneered a new surgical technique to reconstruct the spine following surgery to remove spinal tumors and has spent his career developing numerous spine tumors research protocols and spine surgery techniques.
A true academic surgeon, Dr. Mendel comes to Yale with a wealth of experience in teaching, research, and clinical affairs. In 2006, he became the first honoree of The Justine Skestos Endowed Chair in Minimally Invasive Neurological Spinal Surgery and was recognized for his excellent contributions to education with the Lawrence Mervis, MD Teacher of the Year award in 2016. In addition to seeing patients, Dr. Mendel also served as vice chair for clinical affairs and was elected by his peers to the OSU University Senate and OSU Faculty Council.
An honors graduate from Louisiana State University School of Medicine in New Orleans, Dr. Mendel also holds an MBA from The Ohio State University Max M. Fisher College of Business. He completed his residency at the University of Southern California Medical Center and a fellowship in reconstructive spinal surgery-combined neurosurgery/orthopedics at the University of Florida School of Medicine.
Dr. Mendel is a world-renowned complex spine surgeon, with particular expertise in spine oncology surgery and radiosurgery. He brings decades of unparalleled experience to Connecticut and our region.
Murat Gunel, MD
From 2017 to 2019, he served as president of the Ohio State Neurosurgical Society. He is a fellow of the American College of Surgeons (FACS) and a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). He is a member of AOA Honor’s Society and was selected for the American Academy of Neurological Surgery.
“I am honored and feel extremely privileged to join the Department of Neurosurgery at Yale, a well-established neurosurgical program with long history and strong leadership, leading the spine program and spine oncology program at the Yale Cancer Center/Smilow Cancer Hospital,” says Dr. Mendel. “I hope to provide leadership and expertise in the expansion of the clinical and research enterprise, faculty recruitment, education, and mentorship of the next generation of spine surgeons.”
“I am very excited to welcome Dr. Mendel to the Yale Department of Neurosurgery, Yale School of Medicine, Smilow Cancer Hospital and the Yale-New Haven Health System,” says Dr. Murat Gunel, chair and Nixdorff-German Professor of Neurosurgery. “Dr. Mendel is a world-renowned complex spine surgeon, with particular expertise in spine oncology surgery and radiosurgery. He brings decades of unparalleled experience to Connecticut and our region,” adds Dr. Gunel. ‘Under Dr. Mendel’s leadership, we look forward to enhancing the premier clinical care we already provide to patients with every type of spinal disease and adding his invaluable talent to our already existing outstanding surgeons and services.”
Dr. Mendel is expected to start seeing patients at Smilow Cancer Hospital at the beginning of 2022.