Sandi Lam is a pediatric neurosurgeon whose clinical focus encompasses pediatric epilepsy surgery and cerebrovascular surgery with leadership in surgical innovation, neuroendoscopy, minimally invasive surgical techniques, and development of multidisciplinary patient-centered clinical programs. As chief of Pediatric Neurosurgery at Lurie Children’s Hospital and Northwestern, she has championed clinical subspecialization, clinical and translational research, and education initiatives with international recognition. She helps design and execute Phase 1 and Phase 2 clinical trials, extending hope for epilepsy, gene therapy, pediatric brain tumors, and more.
Her academic research program is based on health services research with quantitative and qualitative methods, including quality improvement and data analytics to understand and improve health care utilization, access, and delivery. She leads funded multicenter comparative effectiveness research for the treatment of epilepsy, defining and measuring outcomes that matter to patients, families, and stakeholder groups.
Dr. Lam contributes to global pediatric neurosurgery collaborations in Africa along with other international neurosurgery efforts in Asia and South America. An ongoing project has developed and implemented a national interdisciplinary pediatric epilepsy surgery program in Uganda.
Dr. Lam received her undergraduate degree at Northwestern University, her neurosurgery residency training at University of California Los Angeles, her pediatric neurosurgery training at University of Pittsburgh/Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh.