Dr. Christopher Nielsen is a Clinical Associate in Orthopeadic Surgery at Toronto Western Hospital.  His elective practice is in spine surgery where he sees a wide range of patients and treats all spinal pathologies in the cervical, thoracic, lumbar and sacral regions.  His areas of interest are in adult spinal deformity and oncology.  Dr. Nielsen also manages traumatic orthopaedic and spinal injuries. Dr. Nielsen completed medical school and residency in Orthopaedic Surgery at the University of Calgary.  He moved to Toronto after residency for a fellowship in complex spine surgery at Toronto Western Hospital where he now works.  Dr. Nielsen is currently finishing his Master’s in Medical Education. 

Dr. Fehlings is the Vice Chair Research for the Department of Surgery at the University of Toronto and a Neurosurgeon at Toronto Western Hospital, University Health Network. Dr. Fehlings is a Professor of Neurosurgery at the University of Toronto, holds the Gerry and Tootsie Halbert Chair in Neural Repair and Regeneration, is a Senior Scientist at the Krembil Research Institute and a McLaughlin Scholar in Molecular Medicine. In the fall of 2008, Dr. Fehlings was appointed the inaugural Director of the University of Toronto Neuroscience Program (which he held until June 2012) and is currently Co-Director of the University of Toronto Spine Program. Dr. Fehlings combines an active clinical practice in complex spinal surgery with a translationally oriented research program focused on discovering novel treatments to improve functional outcomes following spinal cord injury (SCI). He has published over 1000 peer-reviewed articles (h-index 104) chiefly in the area of central nervous system injury and complex spinal surgery.

His work examining the use of regenerative approaches including neural stem cells to repair the injured nervous system has led to numerous international awards and has helped lead the field toward clinical translation in this area. In 2017, the initiative to create Clinical Practice Guidelines for the management of degenerative cervical myelopathy and acute traumatic SCI – a multi-disciplinary international effort led by Dr. Fehlings - was published in the Global Spine Journal. Recently, Dr. Fehlings’ work has been published in the prominent journals Nature, Nature Neuroscience, Lancet Neurology, and Science Translational Medicine.

Dr. Michael Fehlings has received numerous prestigious awards including the Gold Medal in Surgery from the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons (1996), nomination to the Who’s Who list of the 1000 most influential scientists of the 21st century (2001), the Lister Award in Surgical Research (2006), the Leon Wiltse Award from the North American Spine Society for excellence in leadership and/or clinical research in spine care (2009), the Olivecrona Award (2009) -- the top award internationally for neurosurgeons and neuroscientists awarded by the Nobel Institute at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm for his important contributions in CNS injury repair and regeneration, the Reeve-Irvine Research Medal in Spinal Cord Injury (2012), the Golden Axon Leadership Award (2012), the Mac Keith Basic Science Lectureship Award for significant contributions to the basic science of cerebral palsy and childhood onset disabilities (2012), and was the Mayfield Lecturer (2012).