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Dr. George Hanna

Neurosurgeon located in Los Angeles, CA & Tarzana, CA

About George Hanna, MD

Dr. George Hanna is a Fellowship-Trained Neurosurgeon who completed his undergraduate training at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), where he studied Molecular, Cell & Developmental Biology. He completed an undergraduate thesis, Assessing the role of macrophages and granulocytes in the degeneration of severed trigeminal axons in zebrafish, for which he received Departmental Honors. He completed his Doctor of Medicine (M.D.) degree at the Saint Louis University School of Medicine where he received a Doctor of Medicine Degree with Distinction in Research. Thereafter, he completed a Neurological Surgery residency at the University of California, Irvine (UCI) and, later, his Neurosurgery Spine Fellowship at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. His post-doctoral fellowship in Neurological Surgery was funded by the Neurosurgery Research Education Fund (NREF). He remains involved in advanced work in thoracoscopic spinal surgery, navigated spinal surgery, robotic spinal surgery, functional outcomes and clinical and basic science investigations on Gliomas and Brain Tumor research. Dr. Hanna has extensive experience in cranial and spinal neurosurgery that includes tumors of the skull base, cerebellopontine angle, supratentorial and infratentorial space and treats brain tumors such as meningiomas, ependymomas, schwannomas and oligodendrogliomas, vascular lesions of the spine and brain, subdural and epidural hematomas, hydrocephalus, Chiari malformation and cranio-cervical junctional abnormalities. His extensive spine training allows him to deal with complex deformities, adult degenerative scoliosis, cervical and lumbar total disc replacements, microdecompressions, thoracoscopic disc surgery and Robotic and Navigated Spine Surgery.

Undergraduate Work

During his undergraduate studies, he pursued a Baccalaureate Degree in Molecular, Cell & Developmental Biology at the University of California, Los Angeles. His intentions were to have a solid foundation in research techniques, grant writing and advancing in performing basic science scholarly work. During that time, he earned the UCLA Undergraduate Research Scholars Program Scholarship to support his work. He worked in the lab of Dr. Alvaro Sagasti and performed his undergraduate thesis on Assessing the role of macrophages and granulocytes in the degeneration of severed trigeminal axons in zebrafish. In this project, he used a line of zebrafish embryos whose neurons were tagged with green fluorescent protein and different lines of knockdown embryos that had the presence or absence of phagocytic blood cells, specifically macrophages and granulocytes. The role that these blood cells played in the re-arborization of trigeminal neurons after injury were assessed using confocal microscopy to determine whether the presence or absence of these blood cells affected peripheral nerve regeneration after injury. He earned Departmental Honors in the Department of Molecular, Cell & Developmental Biology for this work.

Doctoral Work

During his medical education, he participated in different research projects and went to several annual meetings. He participated in the American Association of Medical Colleges (AAMC) Organization of Student Representatives in which he served as one of four primary liaisons to the AAMC for my medical school. Each year, he would go to the AAMC annual meeting and presented different innovations in medical school education and community outreach. During medical school, he earned the Pauletta and Denzel Washington Family Gifted Scholars Program in Neurosciences Scholarship from the Department of Neurosurgery at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. He used this funding to support his work in the laboratory of Dr. Keith Black in which he studied nanobioconjugates and their role in treating Her2-Neu positive breast cancer metastases in murine models. He also worked closely with different neurological surgery departments looking at interesting case reports, case series, treatment algorithms, literature reviews and advancements in treatment options and techniques. He published several studies and gained a greater understanding into clinical and translational research.

Post-Graduate Work

During his post-doctoral fellowship at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, he pursued formal clinical training in a Neurosurgery Spine Fellowship program where he worked with a multi-disciplinary team of some of the greatest technical and academic Neurosurgical and Orthopaedic Spine surgeons. During his time, he has been involved in outcomes research, publishing articles in multiple peer-reviewed clinical and scientific journals and has been working on grant-writing and IRB protocols. His clinical and research fellowship was funded by the Neurosurgery Research Education Fund (NREF). During this time, he began to work with artificial intelligence software to query patient data, help make predictions based on patient demographics and associated outcomes and was further exposed to the opioid epidemic plaguing our current clinical environment. The opioid dependence of patients is especially prominent in our spinal patient populations who suffer from different mechanisms for their back pain that involves musculoskeletal, discogenic and neuropathic etiologies.

Complete list of published work in his bibliography:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/myncbi/george.hanna.3/bibliography/public/

Academic and Professional Awards

Undergraduate Scholastic Performance
Bachelor’s of Science (B.S.) Degree – Molecular, Cell & Developmental Biology
University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) – Grade Point Average 4.0
Summa Cum Laude
Phi Beta Kappa College Honors from the College of Letters and Sciences
Departmental Honors for Undergraduate Thesis
Chancellor’s Service Award

Graduate Scholastic Performance
Doctor of Medicine (M.D.) – Saint Louis University School of Medicine
Distinction in Research
Gladney Diversity Award
American Medical Association (AMA) Physicians of Tomorrow Scholarship (Amount: $10,000)
Missouri State Medical Association Scholarship
Alpha Omega Alpha (AOA) Honors (Medical School Honors)
Alpha Sigma Nu (Highest Jesuit Institution Honors)

About George Hanna, MD

Dr. George Hanna is a Fellowship-Trained Neurosurgeon who completed his undergraduate training at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), where he studied Molecular, Cell & Developmental Biology. He completed an undergraduate thesis, Assessing the role of macrophages and granulocytes in the degeneration of severed trigeminal axons in zebrafish, for which he received Departmental Honors. He completed his Doctor of Medicine (M.D.) degree at the Saint Louis University School of Medicine where he received a Doctor of Medicine Degree with Distinction in Research. Thereafter, he completed a Neurological Surgery residency at the University of California, Irvine (UCI) and, later, his Neurosurgery Spine Fellowship at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. His post-doctoral fellowship in Neurological Surgery was funded by the Neurosurgery Research Education Fund (NREF). He remains involved in advanced work in thoracoscopic spinal surgery, navigated spinal surgery, robotic spinal surgery, functional outcomes and clinical and basic science investigations on Gliomas and Brain Tumor research. Dr. Hanna has extensive experience in cranial and spinal neurosurgery that includes tumors of the skull base, cerebellopontine angle, supratentorial and infratentorial space and treats brain tumors such as meningiomas, ependymomas, schwannomas and oligodendrogliomas, vascular lesions of the spine and brain, subdural and epidural hematomas, hydrocephalus, Chiari malformation and cranio-cervical junctional abnormalities. His extensive spine training allows him to deal with complex deformities, adult degenerative scoliosis, cervical and lumbar total disc replacements, microdecompressions, thoracoscopic disc surgery and Robotic and Navigated Spine Surgery.

Undergraduate Work

During his undergraduate studies, he pursued a Baccalaureate Degree in Molecular, Cell & Developmental Biology at the University of California, Los Angeles. His intentions were to have a solid foundation in research techniques, grant writing and advancing in performing basic science scholarly work. During that time, he earned the UCLA Undergraduate Research Scholars Program Scholarship to support his work. He worked in the lab of Dr. Alvaro Sagasti and performed his undergraduate thesis on Assessing the role of macrophages and granulocytes in the degeneration of severed trigeminal axons in zebrafish. In this project, he used a line of zebrafish embryos whose neurons were tagged with green fluorescent protein and different lines of knockdown embryos that had the presence or absence of phagocytic blood cells, specifically macrophages and granulocytes. The role that these blood cells played in the re-arborization of trigeminal neurons after injury were assessed using confocal microscopy to determine whether the presence or absence of these blood cells affected peripheral nerve regeneration after injury. He earned Departmental Honors in the Department of Molecular, Cell & Developmental Biology for this work.

Doctoral Work

During his medical education, he participated in different research projects and went to several annual meetings. He participated in the American Association of Medical Colleges (AAMC) Organization of Student Representatives in which he served as one of four primary liaisons to the AAMC for my medical school. Each year, he would go to the AAMC annual meeting and presented different innovations in medical school education and community outreach. During medical school, he earned the Pauletta and Denzel Washington Family Gifted Scholars Program in Neurosciences Scholarship from the Department of Neurosurgery at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. He used this funding to support his work in the laboratory of Dr. Keith Black in which he studied nanobioconjugates and their role in treating Her2-Neu positive breast cancer metastases in murine models. He also worked closely with different neurological surgery departments looking at interesting case reports, case series, treatment algorithms, literature reviews and advancements in treatment options and techniques. He published several studies and gained a greater understanding into clinical and translational research.

Post-Graduate Work

During his post-doctoral fellowship at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, he pursued formal clinical training in a Neurosurgery Spine Fellowship program where he worked with a multi-disciplinary team of some of the greatest technical and academic Neurosurgical and Orthopaedic Spine surgeons. During his time, he has been involved in outcomes research, publishing articles in multiple peer-reviewed clinical and scientific journals and has been working on grant-writing and IRB protocols. His clinical and research fellowship was funded by the Neurosurgery Research Education Fund (NREF). During this time, he began to work with artificial intelligence software to query patient data, help make predictions based on patient demographics and associated outcomes and was further exposed to the opioid epidemic plaguing our current clinical environment. The opioid dependence of patients is especially prominent in our spinal patient populations who suffer from different mechanisms for their back pain that involves musculoskeletal, discogenic and neuropathic etiologies.

Complete list of published work in his bibliography:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/myncbi/george.hanna.3/bibliography/public/

Academic and Professional Awards

Undergraduate Scholastic Performance
Bachelor’s of Science (B.S.) Degree – Molecular, Cell & Developmental Biology
University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) – Grade Point Average 4.0
Summa Cum Laude
Phi Beta Kappa College Honors from the College of Letters and Sciences
Departmental Honors for Undergraduate Thesis
Chancellor’s Service Award

Graduate Scholastic Performance
Doctor of Medicine (M.D.) – Saint Louis University School of Medicine
Distinction in Research
Gladney Diversity Award
American Medical Association (AMA) Physicians of Tomorrow Scholarship (Amount: $10,000)
Missouri State Medical Association Scholarship
Alpha Omega Alpha (AOA) Honors (Medical School Honors)
Alpha Sigma Nu (Highest Jesuit Institution Honors)


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Insurance

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Aetna
Anthem Blue Cross
Cigna
Medicare
Tricare
UnitedHealthcare