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Michael G. Fehlings, MD, PhD, FRCSC

Professor of Neurosurgery
University of Toronto
Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Dr. Fehlings is the Vice Chair Research for the Department of Surgery at the University of Toronto and a Neurosurgeon at Toronto Western Hospital, University Health Network. Dr. Fehlings is a Professor of Neurosurgery at the University of Toronto, the Robert Campeau/Charles Tator Chair in Brain and Spinal Cord Research, is a Senior Scientist at the Krembil Brain Institute and a previous McLaughlin Scholar in Molecular Medicine. In 2008, Dr. Fehlings was appointed the inaugural Director of the University of Toronto Neuroscience Program and is currently Co-Director of the University of Toronto Spine Program. Dr. Fehlings combines an active practice in complex spinal surgery with a translationally oriented research program focused on discovering novel treatments to improve functional outcomes following spinal cord injury (SCI). He has published over 1000 peer-reviewed articles (h-index 115; cited over 60,000 times) chiefly in the area of central nervous system injury and complex spinal surgery. His seminal 1991 paper, cited over 2,000 times, defined the concept of secondary injury following SCI. His research led to the Surgical Timing in Acute Spinal Cord Injury Study (STASCIS), aimed at establishing the need for early surgical decompression to optimize outcomes after SCI. Dr. Fehlings’ work has been published in prominent journals such as JAMA, New England Journal of Medicine, Nature, Nature Neuroscience, Lancet Neurology, and Science Translational Medicine.

Dr. Michael Fehlings has received numerous prestigious awards including the Gold Medal in Surgery from the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons (1996), nomination to the Who’s Who list of the 1000 most influential scientists of the 21st century (2001), the Lister Award in Surgical Research (2006), the Leon Wiltse Award from the North American Spine Society for excellence in leadership and/or clinical research in spine care (2009), the Olivecrona Award (2009) -- the top award internationally for neurosurgeons and neuroscientists awarded by the Nobel Institute at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm for his important contributions in CNS injury repair and regeneration, the Reeve-Irvine Research Medal in Spinal Cord Injury (2012), the Golden Axon Leadership Award (2012), the Mac Keith Basic Science Lectureship Award (2012) and was the Mayfield Lecturer (2012). In 2012, Dr. Fehlings served as the 40th President of the Cervical Spine Research Society (CSRS), and received the CSRS Presidential Medallion. In 2013, Dr. Fehlings was honoured with the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal, the H. Richard Winn Prize from the Society of Neurological Surgeons, the Jonas Salk Award and the Henry Farfan Award from the North American Spine Society. In 2014, Dr. Fehlings was elected to the Fellowship of the Royal Society of Canada and to the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences, and in 2016 won the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons Mentor of the Year Award. In 2019, the Right Honourable Jacinda Ardern, Prime Minister of New Zealand, presented him with the Ryman Prize for his work enhancing the quality of life for older people and he received the Vilhelm Magnus Medal for his contributions to the neurosurgery field.

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