Q&A with Dr. Julie Pilitsis

Julie Pilitsis, MD, PhD, MBA, is chair of the Department of Neurosurgery at the University of Arizona College of Medicine – Tucson and the physician executive for functional neurosurgery for Banner Health System. Prior to this role, she served as dean of the Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine and vice president for medical affairs strategic initiatives at Florida Atlantic University. From 2015 to 2021, Dr. Pilitsis served as chair and professor of neuroscience and division chief of functional neurosurgery at Albany Medical College in New York.

She maintains an NIH-sponsored research program focused on device optimization for neuromodulation with three active grants and has published over 320 journal articles, five textbooks and numerous chapters. She is past president of the North American Neuromodulation Society (NANS) and past president of the American Society for Stereotactic and Functional Neurosurgery (ASSFN). She was previous chair of the AANS/CNS Section on WIN and on Pain.

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Tell us a little about yourself and your story.

I went to a combined BS/MD program straight out of high school on an early educated guess that I would love medicine. I had explored the STEM field and was drawn to medicine for the uniquely human aspect. During medical school, I became interested in the brain during my first year and began looking for research in neurology because that was more accessible. Someone recommended a neurosurgery research lab. That first semester, I was brought into the OR. By the end of that summer, I was hooked.

What drew you to neurosurgery and how did your medical school experience shape that decision?

I always thought the brain was the coolest organ, and I still think that it is. The soul is associated with it, along with everything that we think and do. No other organ compares. At my school, all the third-year medical students had to do a two-week elective rotation in neurosurgery, but I had already decided that I was interested in neurosurgery by that point.

In the more competitive subspecialties, you have to make your own early opportunities, even before your medical school sets you up with experiences. This is because choosing residents for a residency has risks for the program. These competitive programs prefer to see early interest and commitment to their specialty, beyond what a medical school can provide for everybody.

For students interested in neurosurgery, what is the best way to find mentors and build support early?

A mentor should be someone you can trust and who you can bounce around ideas with. You need a mentor in whatever you do, whether that be science, academic or another career field. During undergraduate years, you were probably in a lab or had teachers who you liked, and I think those people can be very important in terms of mentorship. You must have mentors who do the job you are interested in. I have seen so many students over the years who started with an interest in neurosurgery and were told a list of reasons why they shouldn’t go into neurosurgery by another type of physician. They’ll come back to me feeling very discouraged. We are the only ones who really know the difficulties and solutions of our career. Many of the concerns about my field would be best addressed by a practicing neurosurgeon, so you should find a mentor in your desired field.

Secondly, I think that all students should shadow people other than their mentor to make sure they really enjoy the specific area of medicine. Sometimes, you’ll discover that you like your mentor more than you like the field or vice versa, so go shadow something or somebody else to confirm that this is what you want to do.

Why did you decide to do a fellowship in functional neurosurgery? What advice would you give to someone about doing a fellowship?

I saw the relief deep brain stimulation provided patients while I was a resident and I decided that was how I wanted to spend my career. It’s a gift to give people back their ability to function. The lifestyle is pretty great, too, as there are few emergencies. I would not have the quality of life personally or professionally that I have right now if I had not done my fellowship, even though it felt crazy to do a fellowship after eight years of residency training. I focused on deep brain stimulation for Parkinson’s disease and chronic pain alleviation, but some of my functional neurosurgery colleagues do other things, such as specific treatments for epilepsy.

Some of my colleagues really prioritize quality of life, and I’ve seen them take positions that offer them amazing lifestyles where they’ve stayed happy for their entire careers. I’ve also seen people who get lured in by a big practice in a remote area where you earn a gazillion dollars, but you work a gazillion hours. You have choices! You can have more flexibility, a family and much more.

What does a week in your life look like currently?

As a new attending, I negotiated one day of research time and four days in clinic. After I got my first R01 (research) grant from the NIH, I began working three-and-a-half days in the clinic and one-and-a-half days on research. Eventually, I took on more admin responsibilities. Now, I’m one-third clinical, one-third admin, one-third research, but this changes per week. If I am on call, I am at the hospital. If the budget is due, I’m in the office doing administrative paperwork. The great part about getting funding and leadership positions is that you will start to build teams of people to work toward collective goals of your group.

You co-founded AiM Medical Robotics. What inspired that, and how do you see robotics and AI shaping neurosurgery in the next five to 10 years?

I am a physician-scientist. My area of research is “stuff to make myself obsolete.” I feel a little bit like I’m helping to build a bigger mousetrap, ultimately to replace myself, and to provide better options to patients. In my first year of being an attending, I met my co-founder of AiM Medical Robotics. He was working on MRI-compatible robots at the time, and together we decided to use them to automate deep brain stimulation. After a decade of NIH funding and our second go-around starting up this company, it’s been quite the success.

I think the novel part of our startup, MRI compatibility, will be super helpful as we move into intracranial gene therapy and stem cell therapy. Banner – University Medicine Tucson is the first hospital in the world this decade to use stem cell therapy to try to treat  Parkinson’s disease, which is a great example of how our work can benefit so many people. Overall, there is a need for robotics and automation to serve people in rural cities and countries without neurosurgeons. I think it would be amazing to be able to perform robotic surgeries across the world for patients in need and improve the quality of life in underserved communities using technology.

In neurosurgery, the promising use for AI has been most evident in tumor markers and precision medicine, creating care that is appropriate for individual tumors. I’ve been actively participating in a lot of work training AI to predict what treatments patients will respond to and am excited to see how AI moves neurosurgery forward.

If you could go back, what advice would you give your medical school self or incoming residents?

Put yourself in the best position to succeed. Don’t get pigeonholed because of bad advice early on. Do what you know you need to do and study hard so you can have your choice of programs at the end of medical school. Remember that there’s a light at the end of the tunnel in residency, no matter how far away that light seems. That first year of residency is tough because you don’t know what you’re doing and you’re at the bottom rung of the ladder. Once you get into middle management years, things will be about as normal as residency gets. Your chief year will be invaluable, because it’s practice for being an attending with the support of being a resident if you need it. Take it all in chunks. Nine years from now can feel incredibly overwhelming, but it will all feel very different throughout the process and that makes it go by faster. Overall, find a group of people to support you because this will get you through your program. Those people who will tell you “You can do it!” on your deepest, darkest days are invaluable.

How do you balance your personal and professional life?

I am married. My husband is wonderful. He was a lawyer for years, but he decided to stay at home when we had kids so that I could focus on my career and we could have a stable home life. My son is 18 years old and is beginning his undergraduate degree in neuroscience at Columbia. My daughter is 16 years old and is leaning more in her father’s footsteps, toward law. I enjoy doing hot yoga and crossword puzzles, and reading, traveling and shopping in my free time.

Originally printed in the College of Medicine – Phoenix August 2026 Specialty Report Newsletter and reprinted here with permission.

Specialty Report Newsletter Editors: Fatemah Alzuhairi, Hannie Lynch, Eric Dudebout, Tagwa Salih, Tanner Sandberg