Mind Matters: Expert Neurosciences Care for All
We’re helping to advance innovations aimed at improving our understanding of the brain and continue to develop new treatments for neurological disorders.
Encompassing neurology, neurosurgery and spine care, Banner Brain & Spine provides the most advanced care for patients facing some of the toughest challenges in medicine. Patients benefit from clinical excellence, world-renowned neurosciences talent, the most advanced care, and access to the latest innovations in surgery and treatment. Banner Brain & Spine is the only true academic medicine neurosurgical department in Arizona, giving patients access to best-in-class treatments founded in evidence-based research. As the Banner Brain & Spine name attests, the alignment between neurosurgical and orthopedic spine specialists means that every patient has access to the full range of care they may need, all provided in a collaborative setting. Banner Brain & Spine is also home to the newly established Stead Family Center for Normal Pressure Hydrocephalus, a reversible yet often misdiagnosed disease resembling Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and normal aging.
WE ARE AT THE FOREFRONT
Banner Brain & Spine is positioned at the forefront of a neurosciences field that continues to evolve rapidly. We’re helping to advance innovations aimed at improving our understanding of the brain and continue to develop new treatments for neurological disorders. For example, new treatments and medication interventions for stroke have improved patient outcomes, and telemedicine advances are enabling faster evaluation and treatment in stroke care. At Banner, stroke care is monitored and addressed from a citywide perspective in Phoenix. That means any patient who arrives in any of our facilities with a potential stroke will be cared for by an expert team within minutes using AI technology — when time is of the greatest essence.
Yet, despite advances, challenges persist in neurosciences care. These include disparities in access to care, the high cost of treatments, and the need for more research into the causes and treatments of the range of neurological conditions, including epilepsy, multiple sclerosis, and brain tumors. Banner Brain & Spine is aimed squarely at overcoming these challenges.
Investment opportunities are detailed on the following pages. Commemorative naming is available to recognize significant gifts.
Our Vision
Banner Brain & Spine will be a destination center for expert neurological care, differentiated by our integrated delivery network of world-renowned neurologists and neurosurgeons who deliver superior outcomes, comprehensive services, and compassionate patient care. As an integrated health network with a strong academic medical enterprise, only Banner Health has the expertise, infrastructure, and bench strength to build a comprehensive community Brain & Spine program of this stature.
YOUR PARTNERSHIP IS CRUCIAL TO OUR SUCCESS
Building on our excellence in stroke care as recognized by the Joint Commission, we now need to make unprecedented investments across our neurosciences programs to turn our full vision for Banner Brain & Spine into reality. Your partnership is crucial to our success. Through the campaign, we will expand on the excellence we have already achieved with strategic new investments in clinical programs, innovation, recruitment and retention of top talent, and unparalleled multidisciplinary programs to ensure that well-coordinated, world-class care is available and accessible right here in Arizona.
The mission of Banner Brain & Spine is to offer world-class, innovative, data- and evidence-driven neurological and neurosurgical care for problems of the brain and spine. This newly named division houses both the neurology and neurosurgery departments, each encompassing multidisciplinary centers and programs. Philanthropic investment will allow Banner to scale its current offerings across our health system, making this specialized care available to more Arizonans and residents of the southwest and mountain west.
CARE
Comprehensive Spine Center
Investment Needed: $5,000,000
Neuro-oncology
Multidisciplinary Brain Tumor Program
Investment Needed: $5,000,000
This Center provides comprehensive care for all spinal disorders, bringing together advanced surgical techniques, minimally invasive spine procedures, trauma and reconstruction, spinal robotics, augmented reality, pain control, and rehabilitation with specialists in surgery, neurology, physical medicine and rehabilitation, and pain medicine. Philanthropic support is needed to further develop our comprehensive spine center to provide state-of-the-art diagnostic imaging, advanced surgical equipment, and expand patient access to care. Care will include non-invasive treatments, surgical intervention if necessary, and lifestyle modifications with the goal of improving quality of life.
This program will bring individualized care to patients with all types of tumors of the brain and spine, uniting specialists in neurosurgery, neurology, neuro-oncology, radiation oncology, neuropathology, genetics, and clinical trials. This multidisciplinary approach gives patients coordinated care from a team of specialists all working together to deliver the best possible health outcomes.
Stroke Program
Investment Needed: $3,000,000
Multidisciplinary Epilepsy Program
Investment Needed: $2,000,000
Stroke is a leading cause of serious long-term disability. Research shows that the use of stroke systems of care and stroke care quality improvement programs can improve health outcomes. A system-based approach to stroke care promotes the coordination of services along the continuum of prevention and care. Resources are needed to support essential program quality improvement initiatives, including health risk assessments, patient education, community emergency medical services, continuing medical education opportunities for care professionals, research and trial studies, system quality tools, incorporation of artificial intelligence, and post-acute care coordination.
With the recent addition of a functional and epilepsy neurosurgeon to support Banner’s growing epilepsy program and strong demand for epilepsy services, investment is needed to replace the current surgical equipment and upgrade software to maximize the number of patients treated and enhance the quality of their care. Organized around a multidisciplinary epilepsy conference, the program evaluates seizure patients for inpatient monitoring, candidacy for implantation of invasive epilepsy monitors, and advanced treatments such as laser ablation of epileptic foci, responsive neurostimulation, surgical amygdalohippocampectomy, and vagal nerve stimulation.
INNOVATION & RESEARCH
Advanced Brain Center
Investment Needed: $5,000,000
Brain Tumor Clinical Trialist
Investment Needed: $600,000
Neurosciences Research Coordinator
Investment Needed: $300,000
Advancing the field of brain surgery takes highly focused effort that involves uniting specialists in basic science, neurosurgery, engineering, artificial intelligence, neurology, oncology, and many other fields to take on the many challenges which yet remain. The Advanced Brain Center will support teams in identifying the field’s most significant problems and then developing the most innovative methods to solve them. The Advanced Brain Center will specifically favor both tackling major challenges and pursuing innovations that aim to advance the entire neurosciences field.
The clinical trialist facilitates research studies that test how well new medical approaches work in people. Philanthropy will support three years of supplemental salary support in order to advance new methods of screening, prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of brain tumors including bringing cutting edge research trials to Banner Health.
Clinical research allows physicians and scientists to develop a better understanding of diseases. Armed with this knowledge, they can then identify new and more effective methods of detection, diagnosis, treatment, and prevention—all of which benefit disease sufferers. The Neurosciences Research Coordinator monitors the progress of research activities; develops and maintains records of research activities, and prepares periodic and ad hoc reports, as required by investigators, administrators, funding agencies, and/or regulatory bodies.
Banner Brain & Spine Greatest Needs
Unrestricted gifts of every size are vital in supporting a range of needs across Banner Brain & Spine, both today and in the future. These flexible funds allow Banner Health to respond to emergencies, develop innovative solutions, and leverage additional philanthropic investment from individual and institutional funders to advance patient care and programs. Your gift to this unrestricted fund will help advance world-class neurosciences care throughout Arizona and the southwest well into the future, leaving an enduring legacy of caring for our communities.
TALENT
Neurosciences Academic Fellowships
Investment Needed: $3,000,000 per fellowship (endowed)
Subspecialty Physician Support
Investment Needed: $5,000,000
Fellowships give physicians the opportunity to acquire the knowledge, clinical judgment, and literature evaluation skills necessary to practice medicine in specialty and sub-specialty areas. Permanently endowed fellowships provide critically necessary training for physicians pursuing in-demand neurological subspecialties in Neurosurgery, Trigeminal Neuralgia, Chiari, Hemifacial Spasm, Epilepsy, Stroke, and Spine. Fellowship training programs, developed in alignment with our Complex Disease Management programs, will complement both Banner and Arizona’s unique physician demand. Endowment funding will help make Banner a desirable fellowship destination for the best and brightest physicians who are training to be leaders in the Neuroscience specialties.
To build a comprehensive neurological program, Banner Brain & Spine requires subspecialty physicians that fall outside the normal pay structure and can be expensive to employ. Neuro-oncology, endovascular, and ENT (ear, nose, and throat) surgeons are very specialized and in high demand; Banner has historically had a difficult time recruiting these specialties because of compensation constraints. Philanthropic support of newly recruited physicians for the first few years of practice will help us recruit and retain an excellent caliber of new talent to the Brain & Spine team.
At the heart of life is health. And at the heart of health is Banner.
Your philanthropic investment will help us advance our key initiatives in the neurosciences, for which our total funding goal is $38 million. With your support, we will develop effective disease prevention therapies for stroke, Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis, brain tumors, and other neurological disorders. Together, we will expand our world-class clinical research programs; bring outreach, education, and engagement programs to more in the community; fund important operational and infrastructure needs; create new collaborative, education, and training opportunities; and support recruitment and retention of the next generation of clinical and research leaders.