Forty teams of neurosurgeons from top medical institutions competed on June 8, 2019 in New York City’s Central Park as part of the 16th Annual Neurosurgery Charity Softball Tournament. The event was hosted by Columbia University and benefited brain tumor research via the Neurosurgery Research & Education Foundation (NREF), the philanthropic arm of the American Association of Neurological Surgeons (AANS).
This year’s competing departments of neurosurgery included:
- Rutgers
- Barrow Neurological Institute (BNI)
- Case Western
- Columbia
- Duke
- Emory
- Harvard
- Johns Hopkins
- University of California, San Francisco (UCSF)
- Mayo Clinic
- Mount Sinai
- New York University (NYU)
- Thomas Jefferson
- Penn State
- George Washington
- Ohio State
- Alabama
- University of Buffalo
- Tennessee
- University of Texas (UT) - Houston
- Utah
- Florida
- Miami
- Michigan
- Penn
- Pittsburgh
- Puerto Rico
- University of South Florida (USF)
- Toronto
- University of Virginia (UVA)
- Vanderbilt
- Cornell/Memorial Sloan-Kettering
- Kansas University
- Kansas University
- Washington University (Wash U)
- Carolina Neurosurgery and Spine Associates (CNSA)
- Colorado
- Indiana
- Northwestern
- Yale
The playoff field included Emory, CNSA, Tennessee, Ohio State, Vanderbilt, USF, UT Houston, Barrow, UCSF, Puerto Rico, Miami, Florida, Buffalo, Indiana, Michigan and Mount Sinai. The elite eight teams were CNSA, Barrow, Vanderbilt, UT Houston, Miami, UCSF, Florida and Puerto Rico. Barrow, Vanderbilt, UCSF and Puerto Rico made up the final four teams. BNI claimed their seventh championship in ten years by beating UCSF in the finals.
Sponsorship was strong, with over $125,000 raised to support neuro-oncology research fellowships. "The event was a success again this year, securing much-needed support for brain tumor research," according to tournament founder and co-director Ricardo Komotar, MD, FAANS, of the University of Miami.
Planning has begun for the 17th Annual Neurosurgery Charity Softball Tournament, held in New York City on a Saturday in early June 2020.
For more information about the tournament, visit www.NeuroCharitySoftball.org or contact Dr. Komotar at rkomotar@med.miami.edu or Jeffrey Bruce, MD, FAANS, at jnb2@columbia.edu.
