![]() ![]() “I explained to Russ the basics of stereotaxis,” recalls Nelson. Nelson had started out as a general surgeon and had scrubbed in on several stereotactic surgery cases, which were plagued by imprecision. Brown was casting about for a research topic, and Nelson took note of his interests and strengths. “A big, tall, redheaded 3 rd year medical student came down to my office one day,” reminisces Nelson. Nelson was a physician scientist who tirelessly pursued innovative solutions to medical problems he, together with Jim Sorenson, PhD, and Bob Kruger, PhD, laid the foundation for what would become the Utah Center for Advanced Imaging Research (UCAIR). “I needed to find a research elective,” he recalls, “or my fourth year of medical school would be filled with numerous clinical rotations that didn’t appeal to me.”Ī colleague told him to visit Jim Nelson, MD, a radiologist who was doing interesting work two floors down in the basement of University Hospital. 1Īs a third year medical student at the U in 1978, Brown realized he preferred math and computers to direct patient care. He marvels at how an elegant mathematical solution has led to life-saving neurosurgical interventions for more than a million patients. Since his days at the U when he invented the device, Brown has personally met a handful of people whose loved ones have had neurosurgery guided by the N-localizer. Yet it’s something Russ Brown, MD, PhD, a University of Utah School of Medicine graduate and inventor of the N-localizer, has had the pleasure of hearing. “You’re the guy who saved my wife’s life,” is a phrase few researchers expect to hear in their lifetimes. The N-localizer forever changed the world of neurosurgery. Closeup image of the Brown-Roberts-Wells stereotactic system, the first device to incorporate the N-localizer that was invented by a third-year medical student, Russ Brown, MD, PhD, working with researchers in the Department of Radiology in 1978. ![]()
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