My name is Joshua Osbun. I’m a neurosurgeon here at Barnes-Jewish Hospital and Washington University. I specialize in cerebrovascular disease, which means conditions of the brain, spine and blood vessels. I also treat complex tumors of the brain and skull base. And I’m also trained as an interventional neuroradiologist who treats blood vessel problems throughout the brain and spine via the inside of blood vessels through more minimally invasive techniques.

I personally came to Barnes-Jewish Hospital and Washington University because I was given the opportunity to work at one of the premiere medical centers in the country.

Year in and year out, I think that we have really a national and international reputation as a world-class institution.

And to have ready access to all the emerging technologies and research protocols that are available both nationwide and worldwide that we can deliver to our patients, that aren’t really available at every center.

I think what sets Barnes-Jewish Hospital and Washington University apart from not only the greater St. Louis area, but even the rest of the country, is just the large collaboration between the university and the hospital in terms of research efforts. Really truly having all of medicine encompassed into one center on a few square block radius.

So for instance, we have a weekly conference to discuss patients with cerebrovascular disease where several physicians from neurosurgery, radiation oncology, neuro-radiology and interventional neuro-radiology all meet in the same room.

And so in my opinion, it’s a way for the patient to get multiple medical opinions in one sitting without having to go to several individual provider appointments. And they can have the confidence that we discussed this as a large team and they had as many as 10 to 15 physicians looking at their case and rendering an opinion. And we come with a final plan for the patient as a group so they get sort of a quality control and multiple opinions from multiple experts all at once, rather than having to take the time to, to go around to several clinic visits to synthesize the information.