Charles Stevenson, MD, vividly remembers the moment that started it all.
It was the first night of his neurosurgery rotation as a medical student at the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. Stevenson was on call and assisted with an emergency, life-saving procedure.
“It was such a powerful moment — it became immediately clear to me that this is what I wanted to do,” Stevenson said. “I called my mom and dad the next day and said, ‘I want to be a brain surgeon.’”
Stevenson realized where he belonged within the specialty — working with the smallest of patients — midway through his neurosurgery residency training at Vanderbilt.
“The head of pediatric neurosurgery at that time became my mentor. He was an amazing surgeon and person, and he fostered within me a passion for taking care of childhood neurological diseases,” Stevenson said. “As I trained in all the various subspecialities, I kept coming back to pediatrics as being the one that resonated with me the most.
“Removing brain tumors in young children, performing surgeries on fetuses that are still in the womb — I felt so compelled by the opportunities we had to improve child health.”
Stevenson joined the Department of Neurological Surgery at the Indiana University School of Medicine on July 1 as the Leah Mindling Abrams Professor of Neurosurgical Oncology and Division Chief of Pediatric Neurological Surgery at Riley’s Children Health.
Prior to joining IU School of Medicine, Stevenson was professor of neurological surgery at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine and attending neurosurgeon at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center.
“Dr. Stevenson brought over 15 years of experience in pediatric neurosurgery from one of the nation’s leading children’s hospitals,” said Mitesh Shah, MD, chair of the Department of Neurological Surgery. “His clinical breadth — particularly in brain tumors, spasticity treatment and spina bifida management — was exceptional. I was especially impressed by his expertise in fetal surgery, including intrauterine repair of myelomeningocele, which reflects a rare and advanced skill set in our field.”
Shah said Stevenson stood out among other candidates not only for his clinical and academic accomplishments, but also for his leadership qualities.
“His emotional intelligence and calm, thoughtful demeanor makes him ideally suited to lead one of the largest pediatric neurosurgery groups in the country,” Shah said. “He is an affable and respected leader with a proven track record as a clinician, educator and mentor.”
‘Abundant’ opportunities for groundbreaking research
When he’s not meeting with families in the clinic or performing life-changing procedures in the operating room, Stevenson is dedicating his time and efforts to advancing patient care through cutting-edge research.
“It’s one thing in a surgical subspecialty like ours to perform state-of-the-art procedures, and to perform them well. I expect nothing less from myself and all the faculty here at Riley,” Stevenson said. “But it’s another thing entirely to create what is going to become state-of-the-art, and to push the boundaries of what is possible. We plan to do just that through a combination of basic science research, clinical research and translational research.”
Stevenson’s own research is concentrated in two primary areas: developing novel clinical trials to search for more effective treatments for children with malignant and recurrent brain tumors, and working to improve surgical techniques for intrauterine closure of myelomeningocele (a severe form of spina bifida) defects to make the procedure safer for both mother and child.
Additionally, Stevenson serves as an investigator for the national Cerebral Palsy Research Network (CPRN), developing treatment protocols and quality improvement measures to help advance the care of individuals with cerebral palsy. Together with his partners within the divisions of neurosurgery and physical medicine and rehabilitation, they contribute data from Riley’s own patient population to help inform national trends and optimize treatment paradigms for children and young adults with cerebral palsy.
The opportunity to lead innovative research was a big draw for Stevenson to come to the IU School of Medicine.
“In my previous role, I had limited access to resources on a university level, whether that be conducting research with a dedicated neuropathologist or working with basic scientists to investigate a particular tumor type in the lab,” Stevenson said. “Those opportunities are abundant here at IU.
“I am not just confined to what’s going on within these walls here at Riley – I have access to a large, state-wide university system made up of many talented researchers and specialists of all kinds with whom I can collaborate to perform research and uncover new therapies and technologies for patients.”
Stevenson is also fiercely passionate about educating and mentoring the next generation of physicians.
“Training young physicians , whether it be rotating medical students or our IU residents and fellows, is a responsibility I take very seriously,” Stevenson said. “It is one of the most gratifying things about what we do as faculty. I have had the opportunity and privilege to train many residents and fellows over the years, and it is very rewarding to see them advance in their own careers and become successful academic neurosurgeons.
“I admittedly always smile with pride when I receive a text, seemingly out of the blue, from one of my former trainees that says, ‘Hey, I wanted to tell you I had a patient come in on call with this problem, and I ended up doing that trick that you showed me years ago in the OR, and it worked like a charm,’” he said. “There is no better feeling than knowing that the education you provided to them helped improve the life of a patient you will never meet.”
Leading a ‘team of teams’ to provide top-notch patient care
During his 15 years at Cincinnati Children’s, Stevenson helped develop and grow the hospital’s specialty and subspecialty programs, including the Fetal Myelomeningocele Surgery Program and Surgical Spasticity Clinic, a multispecialty program designed to evaluate and treat patients with cerebral palsy and other conditions who are adversely affected by spasticity and dystonia in their limbs.
Now, Stevenson is eager to have the same impact in Indianapolis.
“When I met with leaders here, I understood that they were looking for someone to help grow a pediatric neuroscience center of excellence,” Stevenson said. “I felt that my experiences at Cincinnati Children’s over the years trained me in such a way to be successful in taking on that challenge.
“There’s so much potential here in this system – between the IU School of Medicine and IU Health – to build programs that previously didn’t exist,” he said. “We don’t want our Indiana families to have to travel far to get these very specialized services. We want them to stay here and come to us for care, knowing that they are in the very best hands.”
With Riley’s six neurosurgeons – one of the largest and most experienced pediatric neurosurgery teams in the country, ranked 35th nationally by U.S. News & World Report – Stevenson said all the necessary expertise and resources are in place to build such a center.
In fact, as Stevenson emphasized, programs in various pediatric neurosurgery subspecialties such as fetal surgery, epilepsy and cerebral palsy, are already well established and providing advanced medical and surgical evaluations for patients in Indiana.
All that’s needed now, he said, is “one, unified vision.”
“There are so many things that we do in pediatric neurosurgery in which we are quite dependent, or symbiotic, with other pediatric subspecialties,” Stevenson said. “Having a comprehensive neuroscience center for children requires a ‘team of teams’ approach. All of these separate teams will come together and function seamlessly to provide the best, state-of-the-art neurological care for the children of Indiana and beyond.”
