ARTICLE SUMMARY:
Vascular neurosurgeon Luis Savastano brings a unique perspective to device invention as he straddles the surgical and endovascular worlds. While practicing medicine, he spends equal time on translational medicine. His unique set of skills led him to found Endovascular Engineering and Endovascular Horizons.
Because surgeons and other interventionalists work directly with patients, they are in the best position to understand problems in medicine long before innovators in academia or industry go to the drawing board to invent the tools that might advance care. Cerebrovascular surgeon Luis Savastano, MD, PhD, is perhaps the rare clinician who delivers those solutions himself, as the founder of two start-ups, Endovascular Engineering and Endovascular Horizons, spending as much time on translational medicine as on clinical practice.
Referring to himself as a hybrid vascular neurosurgeon, he treats problems of the neuroanatomy and is part of a select group of clinicians in this country—just a few dozen—who possess both endovascular and microsurgical skills for treating conditions of the brain and spine. Says Savastano, “It’s a long, hard training to get there, but you can provide unique care to patients, because you have no bias one way or another. You understand both options—surgery and endovascular—and you can choose what is best for that patient, because there are always subtleties.”
