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Physician Bio
K ANTHONY KIM, MD, FAANS
Mission Statement:
To advance neurosurgery towards higher accuracy and precision with improved patient satisfaction and outcomes and, to bring such technology to all corners of the world.
Biography
Dr. Kim was born in Athens, Greece to a diplomatic family. During his childhood, he attended schools in Australia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Nepal, Libya, and South Korea. He graduated from Yale University with a B.S. intensive in Biology and a B.A. in Music. He also underwent one year of Masters in Musical Arts at Yale University. He earned his M.D. at the Keck-University of Southern California School of Medicine and graduated with Highest Distinction and was inducted into the Alpha Omega Alpha medical honor society in 2000. He is a board-certified diplomate of the American Board of Neurological Surgery (ABNS) and fellow of the American Association of Neurological Surgeons (FAANS).
Dr. Kim TV interview
He is well versed in all forms of spinal hardware, and has implanted over 15,000 spinal instrumentation products by 2022.
Dr. Kim continues to partner with the Brain Tumor Board at UCSF Neuro-Oncology and encourages his patient to seek academic and second opinions. By having a local oncologist/radiation oncologist as well as academic input, Dr. Kim hopes to advance Brain Tumor Oncology in Southern California to the latest and most advanced level while assuaging patients’ concerns of “traveling to obtain the right treatment” in a timely manner. Additionally, Dr. Kim provides close monitoring or brain tumors and metastatic tumors, and provides stereotactic radiosurgery (most commonly, cyberknife) for minimally invasive outpatient treatment. He is also bringing Laser Interstitial treatment (LITT) to Mission hospital.
More recently, Dr. Kim has been focused on advancing spinal surgery towards higher accuracy and precision with improved patient satisfaction and outcomes:
— From 2007 to 2022, Dr. Kim continues to boast one of the lowest infection rates in Orange County for spine and brain surgery; his team is committed to hyper-vigilance and wound care, utilizing the latest wound dressings and materials.
— From 2012 to currently, Dr. Kim has performed over 2000 STEALTHTM-navigation complex spine cases with over 8000 instrumentation screws at Mission hospital and is proud to be one of the highest user/experts of spinal navigation in the United States. Spinal navigation is a GPS road map system used during surgery to avoid wrong-placed instruments and wrong levels and other mishaps. He has currently partnered with Medtronic Navigation and Globus Navigation platforms in order to bring the latest technology to the operating theater. Simply, he will work to create an alpha site for the latest technology at each hospital. Dr. Kim is in the process of incorporating the robotic arm (ExclesiusTM) for spinal (and – in the future– cranial) surgery.
— From 2017-currently, Dr. Kim has incorporated preoperative 3D planning platforms such as UNIDTM (Medicrea) and SurgimapTM and now MazorX to create the optimal angles and sagittal balance for the patient. The patient will be able to glimpse the ‘before’ and ‘after’ curves prior to surgery. Custom rods and implants are pre-ordered to ‘perfectly’ fit the patient. For revision patients, wider diameter screws are pre-ordered to prevent loosening. The goal is to prevent unnecessary fusions, stress fractures of the hardware, and flattening of the natural curve of the spine. Also, by pre-planning the entire spinal outline, scoliosis and deformity corrections follow a natural curve. Dr. Kim is partnering with Globus and Medtronic to become the alpha and beta site for AR goggles and touchless robotics coming soon 2022-2023.
— From 2014 to currently, Dr. Kim has served as physician liaison and now Chief Medical Officer for the application of non-invasive magnetic resonance therapy (MeRT) on patients with traumatic brain injury and PTSD at NeuroMod Sciences and the Brain Treatment Center. He has worked with active soldiers as well as veterans to alleviate concerning symptoms of PTSD and depression and substance abuse. He seeks to advance non-invasive non-surgical methods to alleviate symptoms and improve diagnosis in a new realm of neuro-physics. As an adjunct realm of study, how the brain is affected by space travel and performance enhancement is being investigated.
He has been invited to meetings to speak before the Plenary Session at the American Association of Neurological Surgeons (AANS), the Congress of Neurological Surgeons (CNS), the Western Neurological Society (WNS), the AANS-CNS section of Spine and Peripheral Nerve Disorders (“Spine section”), and the AANS-CNS section of Pediatric Neurosurgery to name a few. He has published in the main neurosurgical journals, Journal of Neurosurgery, the Spine journal, Neurosurgery, and Neurosurgical Focus among others, and has reviewed for Neurosurgery in the field of penetrating trauma and for the International Society for the Advancement of Spinal Surgery (ISAAS).
Dr. Kim has been awarded the ‘Physician of Excellence’ designation by the Orange County Medical Association (OCMA) in 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023.He also continues to work as interviewer and college fair speaker for Yale University and won the Yale Service Award in 2016. In 2021, he was interim admissions interview director for Yale in OC. He will continue to champion the motto of Yale (“Lux et Veritas”) to all high school students, and advocate for all students to achieve a higher education.
In 2022, he joined GlobalFirstResponder and Christian Emergency Response Team to Romania and Moldova and to the Ukraine border for 10 days during the first two months of the war. He hopes to continue to support the missions in the field directly and through fund-raising.
First and foremost, Dr. Kim is dedicated to the care and well-being of his patients. His goal is to combine compassionate patient care with the most up-to-date evidence-based medicine, and to provide patients with teaching, insight, and knowledge of the pros and cons of recent advances in the field.
Away from work, Dr. Kim enjoys swimming, traveling, and being with his wife, two sons, and daughter.
Best Of The Best
An Innovative Leader
Dr. Kim has performed the most Mazor X robotic spine cases in the state of California (partnership with Medtronic). His team also boasts one of the highest volumes of computer navigated spine and scoliosis cases in the country, currently over 1000 in a single surgeon.