Vikas V. Patel MA, MD

Dr. Vikas currently serves as the Executive Vice-Chair of the Department of Orthopedic Surgery. As an academic spine surgeon, it is his responsibility to stay involved in the latest spine care research findings, techniques, and technologies. As a clinician, he must also use the latest diagnostic technologies to first find the source of discomfort and disability in his patients. He then looks to his training and experience to educate my patients on treatment options and together judge which might be the best treatment for each individual patient without increasing the risk of complications. We can thus choose the best technology together based on their condition and expectation of surgical treatment. Surgery, however, is the last resort to be chosen only if conservative measures fail to provide sufficient relief.

He earned his Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering and worked as an engineer before earning both a Master’s of Arts and a Doctor of Medicine degree at Washington University in St. Louis. His orthopedic spine surgery training took place at the University of California (San Francisco), and his specialized fellowship training was at St. John’s Hospital in Santa Monica. Minimally invasive spine surgery of the cervical, thoracic and lumbar spine. He also treats complex spine problems including failed back and neck surgery as well as conditions that patients may have been told can’t be treated.