Clara Raquel Epstein, MD
Brainbiz.org, President/CEO
 

Clara Raquel Epstein, MD is a Neurosurgeon with Subspecialty Fellowship Training in Stroke & Cerebrovascular Disorders and Stereotactic Radiosurgery & Neurosurgical Oncology. Dr. Epstein is also actively involved in National & International Organized Medicine and in Development of Novel Technologies as Applied to Neurosurgery including Neuro-robotics, Neuro-endoscopy, Stereotaxis & Neuro-imaging, and Neuroinformatics.

As a result of Dr. Epstein's unique expertise in neurosurgery, medicine, and  computer technology, she has been nominated as a member to several committees, editorial boards and honored at various peer reviewed venues. In 2004, Dr. Epstein was presented with the Third Annual Ohio State University Medical Center's Research Award and Traveling Scholarship for her collaborative research entitled "Correlation of Microvascularity within Human Gliomas Identified at 8-Tesla, Ultra High Resolution MRI and Histopathology Using Frameless Stereotactic Guided Biopsies". This project applied state of the art neuroinformatics integrated with 3D animated reconstruction and simulation of triangulated frameless stereotactic guided Glioma brain biopsies. Dr. Epstein demonstrated the application and triangulation of 8-Tesla Neuroimaging and 1.5-Tesla Neuroimaging for frameless stereotactic biopsies of hypervascular regions of Gliomas and correlation with frozen and permanent pathological specimens, enhancing accurate diagnosis and staging in patients.

Dr. Epstein spearheaded the Computer Assisted Surgery Laboratory Web Re-development project, the CAS Laboratory Redesign, and development of the Interdisciplinary Curriculum while working on her Ph.D. at Wayne State University. Her collaborative work contributed to acquisition of the Michigan Life Science Corridor Award Funding, "Integration of Bioengineering & Biocomputing to Advance Michigan Computer-Assisted Surgery Research". The amount awarded was $3,377,560 to Wayne State University and Lucia Zamorano, MD in May 2003.

While pursuing her Ph.D., Dr. Epstein was also the recipient of the National Science Foundation Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship (NSF-IGERT) Scholarship at Wayne State University, College of Engineering and Division of Computer Assisted Surgery (Detroit, MI) in the amount of $33,297. Dr. Epstein's novel research project was entitled “Web-based Teaching Tools with Wireless Access for Computer Assisted Neurosurgery and Radiosurgery”. Her research advisors for this project were Lucia Zamorano, MD and Vipin Chaudhary, PhD. (2002-2003).

Dr. Epstein has been involved in Medical Web Development, Medical & Neuroinformatics, Medical Software Development and Hardware Integration since 1989. Dr. Epstein has numerous World Wide Web Publications to her credit (see her current CV for more details). In addition to her national & international accomplishments in providing internet and medical informatics expertise, she has participated in providing a web presence for Mount Sinai NYU Health Sciences Organization. Dr. Epstein also facilitated providing remote access for the Clinical Program for Cerebrovascular Disorders and Neurosurgery staff and faculty at Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York to, not only Neuro-imaging studies available (MRI, CT Scans, etc.), but also to critical patient data.  This enables the faculty and staff while traveling to medical conferences, ability to secure access to crucial patient data which utilizes state of the art technology and the Web. 

While at FUHS/The Chicago Medical School, Dr. Epstein acquired invaluable experience in her role as a Medical Informatics Coordinator, Teaching Assistant, and  Technical Team Member of the Department of MIS and Medicine. Dr. Epstein participated in establishing the CMS/Norwalk Hospital Informatics Program (which is affiliated with Yale College of Medicine). She spearheaded and coordinated chest pain studies utilizing EMR software developed by CMS, at remote sites including Cook County Hospital, Adult Emergency Services (Chicago, IL), Norwalk Hospital (Norwalk, CT), and North Chicago VA Medical Center (North Chicago, IL). EMR was developed further to become what is known and marketed today as HealthPoint ACS™.

Dr. Epstein's collaborative work, entitled "Multi-Lingual IMR-E (Intelligent Medical Records Entry) Software Development" was presented at the Midwest Medical Student Research Forum at the University of Nebraska College of Medicine and Creighton University School of Medicine in Omaha, Nebraska, held February 12-13, 1993. This was supported by American Medical Association Education & Research Foundation. Her work was also subsequently the focus of a full day workshop presented at HELINA 93, the First International Working Conference on Health Informatics at the Obafemi Awolowo University in Ile-Ife, Nigeria, Africa. This event was co-sponsored by the World Health Organization and held April 26-28, 1993. During this time Dr. Epstein worked closely with the MIS team, David Trace, MD and Frank Naeymi-Rad, PhD.

For more information about medical web development visit Brainbiz.org.

View Dr. Epstein's CV