Uzma Samadani, MD, PhD
Expert Guest Speaker
Uzma Samadani, MD PhD is a neurosurgeon and brain injury researcher at the University of Minnesota. She has been listed as a five-time “Top Doctor in Neurosurgery” by Minneapolis-St. Paul Magazine and Minnesota Monthly. In 2018 she was on the cover of the “Top Doctors” edition with the byline “The Doctor Will Save You Now.” She has also been named a “Courageous Women in Healthcare” by the Women’s Health Leadership Trust, and awarded as a “Most Creative Person in Business” by Fast Company magazine.
Dr. Samadani is an Associate Professor in the Department of Bioinformatics and Computational Biology at the University of Minnesota with a graduate faculty appointment in Neuroscience. She is also an attending neurosurgeon at the Minneapolis Veterans Administration Medical Center and founder of the neurodiagnostic start-up Oculogica Inc, which has developed the first baseline free concussion diagnostic cleared for marketing approval by the FDA.
She is on the Executive Committee of the American Association of Neurological Surgeons/Congress of Neurological Surgeons Joint Section on Neurotrauma and Critical Care and served as Scientific Program Chair for their meeting in conjunction with the National Neurotrauma Society from 2014-7. She also serves as Board Chair for the ThinkFirst Foundation, the largest brain injury prevention foundation in the world. She is past-Chair of the Minnesota State Traumatic Brain and Spinal Cord Injury Research Program and a Past-President of Women in Neurosurgery.
Dr. Samadani has received more than five million dollars in research grants from national and international competitive funding agencies to study diagnostics, risks, outcomes and treatments for brain and spinal cord injury. She has been funded by the United States Veterans Administration, Department of Defense, National Space and Biomedical Research Institute, Abbott Diagnostic Laboratories, American College of Surgeons, American Association of Neurological Surgeons, Thrasher Research Fund, Integra, the Steven and Alexandra Cohen Foundation and several other organizations.
She is certified by the American Board of Neurological Surgeons and a fellow of the American College of Surgeons and American Association of Neurological Surgeons. Her research on brain injury has been discussed in the New York Times, LeMonde, LeFigaro, Wired, Washington Post, Sports Illustrated, Forbes, and Minneapolis Star Tribune as well as numerous other media sources. She has been a speaker at TedMed, the North American Brain Injury Society, National Neurotrauma Society, American Association of Neurological Surgeons meeting and multiple other conferences. She has published 70 peer-reviewed scientific papers and an additional 30 reviews and chapters including in the Journal of Neurotrauma, JAMA Neurology, Journal of Neurosurgery and the New England Journal of Medicine.
Dr. Samadani also served as an unaffiliated neurotrauma consultant to the National Football League from 2015 to 2018.
