NASS DFNS CLASS OF 2026
Mark Testaiuti, MD
Coastal Spine
Mount Laurel, NJ
Neurosurgeon
NASS Member Since 2007
How has your involvement with NASS influenced your professional growth or career journey?
Attending the yearly NASS meetings and reading SpineLine and newsletters has been both motivating and reassuring that my decision making and practice patterns have been sound and up to date. Having co-founded and co-directed a combined Ortho/Neuro spine fellowship program at Cooper University Hospital in Camden, NJ, I was responsible for training residents and fellows in spinal surgery. I frequently looked to NASS as a significant and reliable source of peer reviewed, evidence-based data that I was able to share with the residents and fellows in my practice and journal club, etc. as I taught them over the years and I still use in my personal practice to this day. Additionally, I have been a manuscript reviewer for The Spine Journal (TSJ) for the last 8 years and find it extremely rewarding and informative to be able read and critique current spine topics being presented for publication.
What was a pivotal movement in your career that shaped the professional you are today?
After having finished my residency training which included two years of embedded spine training at AECOM/ Montefiore Medical Center, I felt confident and prepared to embark on my start as a new attending at UMDNJ/Cooper University Medical Center, a level one trauma center. During this time, I engaged in academic research, and as previously mentioned, co-directed an Ortho/Neuro spine fellowship program. However, the pivotal moment came when I was asked to become the Director of Neurosurgery for the department of surgery. It was a role that I cherished for having exposed me the administrative and financial side of hospital-based medicine where I felt I was able to make a difference in guiding my division’s academic and financial growth as well as participate in interdepartmental issues. The development and insight I gained from this role still positively influences my decision making in my private practice at Coastal Spine Physicians, LLC in Mount Laurel, NJ.
Tell us about one of your mentors and the best piece of advice they gave you.
“It is better to stay out of trouble than to get out of trouble, but if you find yourself in trouble, it’s even better to actually know how to get out of it!” W. Jost Michelsen, MD
This little “ditty” has stayed with me throughout my career and keeps me grounded particularly when I contemplate and prepare for difficult cases!