Dr. Joshua A. Hirsch earned his medical degree from the University of Pennsylvania
School of Medicine. The youngest graduate in the recent history of the University
of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, he is fellowship trained and certified by
the American Board of Radiology. After completing an internship in medicine
at Pennsylvania Hospital, a residency in radiology and fellowship in Neuroradiology
at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, he completed an additional
fellowship in Interventional Neuroradiology at the NeuroVascular Center of the
Lahey Medical Center in Burlington, MA.
Dr. Hirsch is a senior member of the American Society of Neuroradiology and
the American Society of Interventional and Therapeutic Neuroradiology. He serves
on a variety of committees for these and other societies including the Society
of Interventional Radiology.
He is also a member of the American College of Radiology, American Roentgen
Ray Society, Radiologic Society of North American, Society for Health Service
Research in Radiology, American Society of Spine Radiology, American Society
of Pediatric Neuroradiology, and the North American Spine Society.
Dr. Hirsch is considered one of the fathers of minimally invasive spine surgery.
He is acknowledged as having performed the first vertebroplasty in New England.
As a recognized expert in that technique, he has widely lectured on its use.
He has instructed physicians from across the world in the technique of percutaneous
vertebroplasty. Dr. Hirsch is trained and performs balloon-assisted kyphoplasty
and was credited with performing the first combined percutaneous vertebroplasty/kyphoplasty
in Boston.
A thought leader in percutaneous decompression of the disc, he was an early
believer in the use of percutaneous nucleoplasty as a treatment for sciatica.
He used the technique in sciatica while many were concentrating on axial pain.
He is also trained in other percutaneous disc procedures including the DeKompressor
technique and the IDET procedure. Dr. Hirsch has been called on to be a featured
speaker at a number of professional national meetings to discuss these techniques.
He has actively taught numerous physicians the technique of nucleoplasty.
The lay press has acclaimed Dr. Hirsch's innovative work on minimally invasive
spine surgery. Twice, innovative treatments have been featured on the front
page of the health section of the Boston Globe. He has been cited in many print,
radio and television campaigns. Most recently, he performed a "live to tape"
vertebroplasty on the web, which is still viewable in archived form.
Dr. Hirsch is active academically maintaining his appointment through Harvard
Medical School and working at Harvard hospitals. He has published many articles
in the peer-reviewed literature. An additional three articles and two book chapters
are in print. He is on the Editorial Advisory Board for the journal Pain
Physician and Invited Peer Reviewer for the American Journal of Radiology,
American Journal of Neuroradiology, and the Journal of Vascular and Interventional
Radiology.
Joshua A. Hirsch, MD is on the Spine Universe Editorial Board.
