Roger Hartl, MD is Associate Professor of Neurological Surgery and Chief of Spinal Surgery and Neurotrauma at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York. Dr. Härtl, who is currently the Leonard and Fleur Harlan Clinical Scholar in Neurological Surgery, is also the neurosurgeon for the New York Giants football team.
Dr. Härtl received his M.D. from the Ludwig-Maximillians University in Munich, Germany. In 1994 Dr. Härtl came to the Weill Cornell Medical College as a post-doctoral research fellow to pursue research in traumatic brain and spinal cord injury. He completed another fellowship, this one in Neurocritical Care, at the Charite Hospital of the Humboldt University in Berlin, Germany, followed by a surgical internship and residency at Allegheny General Hospital in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He completed his neurosurgery residency at NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center and Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, after which he pursed specialized training in complex spine surgery at the Barrow's Neurological Institute in Phoenix under Dr. Volker Sonntag. Dr. Härtl returned to New York in 2004 re-join the Department of Neurosurgery at Weill Cornell Medical College as an Assistant Professor.
His scientific work focuses on the pathophysiology of traumatic brain injury and the treatment of brain edema and intracranial hypertension in brain-injured patients. He is a leader in the application of evidence-based medicine to neurosurgery and worked with the Brain Trauma Foundation in New York on the development of treatment guidelines for the medical and surgical management of head injury now used nationwide. Dr. Härtl has lectured and published extensively on the surgical treatment of spine disorders, traumatic brain injury, and spinal cord injury.
Dr. Härtl's clinical and research interests focus on simple and complex spine surgery, neurotrauma, and neurocritical care medicine. He is actively involved in improving neurosurgical care in third-world countries as a participant in Weill Cornell's Global Health initiative in Tanzania. In order to achieve the very best in patient outcomes, Dr. Härtl's practice emphasizes a multidisciplinary approach to disease processes and he works very closely with other specialists such as neurologists, pain specialists, and physical therapists.
