Skull Base Fellowship
Get in-depth, hands-on training in the most delicate types of surgery.
About us
The Geisinger Skull Base Neurosurgery Fellowship offers an immersive, anatomy-driven, high-volume microsurgical and endoscopic experience supported by a state-of-the-art BioSkills Laboratory, diverse neurosurgical faculty and a culture grounded in mentorship, innovation and academic excellence.
Fellows receive constant microsurgical and endoscopic exposure to the entire spectrum of skull base pathology — including advanced open cerebrovascular surgery. You’ll train alongside a wide and diverse group of neurosurgeons who’ll give you breadth, technical diversity and robust operative judgment.
Innovation & research excellence
Our program is anchored by an active research environment supported by internal and external funding, including competitive grants from the North American Skull Base Society (NASBS).
Our research mission is driven by 4 major platforms:
- IMPACT Meningioma Database: ML-powered prediction modeling for growth, recurrence, functional independence and long-term outcomes
- Pituitary Outcomes & Radiomics Database: Machine-learning tools for invasiveness scoring, surgical planning, endocrine outcomes and long-term follow-up modeling
- Surgical innovation research through the BioSkills Lab — approach refinement, safety studies and tool development projects
- Anatomical and microsurgical research, including technique validation and approach optimization
Fellows are expected to produce at least 5 first-author publications per year, supported by robust institutional mentorship and large active datasets.
Additional scholarly opportunities include:
- Participation in multi-institutional-funded projects
- Protected research time
Rafael Martinez-Perez, MD, PhD
Pituitary & Skull Base Neurosurgery, Neurosurgical Oncology
Assistant Professor of Neurosurgery
Director, Skull Base and Minimally Invasive Cranial Fellowship
Geisinger and Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine
Program overview
2-year fellowship
- Your training will provide broad educational experience in skull base neurosurgery that will complement that training in the neurosurgery residency to promote further acquisition of knowledge and skills in the subspecialty.
- Training over 24 months will be spent in a clinical skull base surgery program under the direction of clinical faculty. This will include comprehensive patient care, diagnostic modalities, performance of surgical procedures and integration of non-operative and surgical therapies into clinical patient management.
- Each fellowship will provide broad exposure to clinical evaluation and appropriate patient selection for operative and nonoperative management in inpatient and outpatient settings.
- Each fellow will participate in the operative management of a wide range of skull base surgical conditions, including tumor-related, vascular, traumatic, congenital or other pathological diseases and abnormalities. Fellows will gain progressive responsibility in patient management.
- Clinical, anatomic and neuroscience research are an integral part of the experience and fellows receive support to complete research.
- Endoscopic Endonasal Cases (Minimum 10)
- Pituitary Adenoma
- Other
- Anterior Skull Base Microsurgery (Minimum 10)
- Tumor
- Trauma
- Infection
- Congenial
- CSF Leak Repair
- Middle Skull Base Microsurgery (Minimum 10)
- Tumor
- Trauma
- Infection
- Congenial
- CSF Leak Repair
- Posterior Skull Base Microsurgery (Minimum 10)
- Tumor
- Trauma
- Infection
- Congenial
- CSF Leak Repair
- Craniocervical Junction Microsurgery (Minimum 10)
- Open Vascular Skull Base Microsurgery (Minimum 10)
- Skull Base Radiosurgery (Minimum 10)
- Total fellow case minimum: 70
- Neurosurgery grand rounds/topics - Bi-weekly (1)
- Cerebrovascular case conference - Weekly (1)
- Neurosurgery M&M - Monthly (1)
- NS journal club - Monthly (1)
- Stroke M&M - Monthly (1)
- Stroke core committees - Weekly (1)
- Neurovascular research conference - Weekly (1)