Yu-mi Ryang MD

Ryang did her medical studies at Ruhr University in Bochum, Germany. She received the Doctor Medicinae Academic title from the same institution. Her postdoctoral thesis on “Neuroprotective Effects and Signaling Pathways of New Therapeutics in Experimental Brain Lesions by In Vivo and In Vitro Ischemic and Traumatic Brain Injury,” granted her the title of Associate Professor from the Technical University of Munich, Germany. 

After completing her neurosurgical training at RWTH Aachen University Hospital in 2009 and receiving her board certification, Ryang worked at the Department of Neurosurgery at Klinikum Rechts der Isar in the Technical University of Munich, Germany, where she served as vice-chair from June 2017 to December 2018. Due to her outstanding performance, Ryang became department chair of neurosurgery at Helios-Klinikum Berlin-Buch, a position that she has held since February 2019. 

Ryang has exceptional clinical and surgical expertise in the entire field of neurosurgery. In addition to neuro-oncology and vascular neurosurgery, her main focus is spinal neurosurgery. She is also scientifically active in these areas, especially in the field of spinal navigation, robotics, aging spine, and the development of novel implants. 

She is a faculty member of several important organizations including AOSpine, the European Association for Neurosurgical Societies (EANS), the German Neurosurgical Society (DGNC), EUROSPINE, and the German Spine Society (DWG). In the latter two she is an active member of educational, scientific, and steering committees. In AOSpine, she is co-founder of “Women in Spine”, to encourage female spine surgeons along their journey. Since 2018, Ryang is chair of Module 4 (Trauma) of the EUROSPINE education week and since 2019 co-chair of Module 5 (Tumors, inflammatory and systemic diseases of the spine) of the DWG education week. She actively participated in creating E-learning platforms for both societies. Furthermore, she is the author of more than 100 scientific publications in peer-reviewed, national and international journals and books. She is also active as a reviewer of multiple peer-reviewed journals such as World Neurosurgery and The Spine Journal. 

Throughout her career, Ryang’s research has earned her various awards. Her work on, “Minimally Invasive Transforaminal Lumbar Interbody Fusion vs. Open Transforaminal Lumbar Interbody Fusion – a Technical Description and Review of the Literature,” granted her fellow authors the Acta Neurochirurgica Best Paper of the Year in Spine Award in 2017. In 2018, she and her colleagues received the Research Award of the Austrian Spine Society, the DWG Young Academics Prize (Nachwuchspreis), and the IPCAI Bench to Bedside Award at the 9th International Conference on Information Processing in Computer-Assisted Interventions in Berlin.