Jeffrey Greenfield is a pediatric neurosurgeon on the MSK Kids team who cares for patients with brain and spine tumors. Learn about how he combines compassionate care with leading scientific advances.
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DR. JEFFREY GREENFIELD
I think it’s important to keep kids in a state of mind where they feel safe and they feel protected. The parents should know that I’m taking care of their child the way I would take care of my own child.
My name is Jeffrey Greenfield. I am a pediatric neurosurgeon specializing in pediatric neuro-oncology at Memorial Sloan Kettering.
The first thing that I try to do when I’m dealing with a child and a parent in a room together is to try to establish rapport with the child. You know, putting them at ease, making them comfortable, create some level of trust and comfort that this is a scenario that it’s not that they’re in and I’m fixing, but rather that we’re in together. And not only them and I, but actually the entire team.
You’ve got a whole team of nurse practitioners, oncologists, radiation doctors that are all gonna be looking at this problem from lots of different perspectives. We’re all gonna be collaborating on what is the right decision and what the right next steps will be.
I do have a level of expertise in several areas that I think are unique and that families do seek me out for. And one of those is the minimally invasive neurosurgical techniques. We’re able to use small cameras now to get inside the brain and operate in ways that 20 years ago was not even conceivable.
One of the most exciting things about the field right now is that there is a real upswing in the translation from what we’re doing in the laboratory into directing really focused treatments for kids. And so a ton of effort is put into the translational part of our research, which is: How do we move beyond just these great scientific discoveries and actually lift them into clinical trials?
I really do feel like this is sort of the beginning of a real cusp of you know, explosion, that will make a huge difference in turning some of these tumors from incurable diagnoses to treatable diseases.
The combination of the training, the technology, and the team around me, I think makes this a place where every parent really feels comfortable that they’re getting the highest level of care that they could get anywhere in the country.
