Complex Spine/MIS Deformity Fellow
Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis
Dr. Galal Elsayed hails from New Jersey and Florida. He graduated with honors with a Bachelors of Science in Microbiology and Molecular Biology from the University of Central Florida. He had the honor of being part of the third inaugural class at the University of Central Florida College of Medicine where he earned his MD. He had the prestigious honor of being inducted into the Alpha Omega Alpha (AOA) Honor Society. He completed his residency in neurological surgery at the University of Alabama-Birmingham where he had the honor of training in minimally invasive spinal surgery under the tutelage of Dr. Mamerhi Okor, Dr. Patrick Pritchard, Dr. Daniel Harmon and Dr. Jakub Godzik from Barrow Neurological Institute. Currently, he has the prestigious honor of being the minimally invasive/complex spinal deformity fellow at Washington University in St. Louis Department of Neurological Surgery under Dr. Zachary Ray, Dr. Paul Santiago and Dr. Nitin Agarwal.
Over his career, Dr. Elsayed has won the Richard Morawetz Research Award 3 years in a row from 2017-2020 and the Griffith Harsh III Research Award the fourth year after that in 2020-2021. In addition, he was honored with a $25,000 grant to become the Clinical Buchalter Scholar in 2019-2020. He has published over 40 peer reviewed publications that span all major disciplines of neurological surgery including in the Journal of Neurosurgery, Neurosurgery, RNA and being cited in major journals such as Cell, and Nature Medicine. He was invited to the White House in 2019 to present his research in the East Wing to the staff of the United States Department of Health and Human Services.
In addition, Dr. Elsayed is the Chief Executive Officer of Neurite which is dedicated to the crossroads of advanced machine learning/artificial intelligence and healthcare. Neurite has performed work for the United States Department of Defense and worked alongside major corporations from Silicon Valley. Dr. Elsayed pioneers the use of virtual/augmented/extended reality technologies to help him plan for his surgeries. He also has pioneered the use of advanced machine learning algorithms to help with optimizing patient outcomes from spine surgery.
On a lighter note, he used to be a commercial whitewater raft guide on the Arkansas River at the Royal Gorge and he is a dedicated husband and father. In his spare time, Dr. Elsayed is known for visiting national parks. He also enjoys reading historical nonfiction and science fiction.