Ian S Mutchnick, MD

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Dr. Mutchnick came to Louisville as a resident in neurological surgery in 2003 and liked it here so much he stayed. He grew up in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and after graduating from college joined the Peace Corps, serving as a math and science teacher in Tanzania, East Africa, and becoming fluent in the Swahili language. Seeing so many underserved people there inspired him to pursue medicine. Prior to medical school, Dr. Mutchnick spent two years studying decision making at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California. “Decision making - good decision making - is the very heart of the patient experience,” believes Dr. Mutchnick, “helping people understand what is at stake and allowing them to apply their own perspectives and values to that decision is one of the most important things I do.” He welcomes patients and families seeking second opinions. While Dr. Mutchnick practices all kinds of pediatric neurosurgery – cerebrospinal fluid shunts, Chiari malformations, tethered cords and trauma form a large part of what he cares for – he specializes, as well. He is an active part of the craniofacial program at Norton Children’s Hospital and works closely with the pediatric plastic surgery service on even the most complex cases. He is also the Surgical Director of both the Pediatric Epilepsy program as well and the Functional/Spasticity program. Dr. Mutchnick has several research and humanitarian interests. Chief among them is an interest in the neuroscience of human conflict. He regularly provides free pediatric neurosurgical care to children in the West Bank and Gaza and is developing research protocols to understand how children deal with and recover from trauma. He is also interested in how people identify as part of a group and how that changes their understanding of information - a key part of human conflict. He is looking at how best to put information together to help patients make good decisions about simple tethered cords - a condition for which we have no clear way to make a conclusive diagnosis.