Theresa Williamson

Theresa Williamson, MD

Co-Chair, Surgical Ethics Working Group, HMS Center for Bioethics
Faculty Neurosurgeon, Massachusetts General Hospital & Harvard Medical School

Theresa Williamson, MD, is a neurosurgeon and surgical ethics researcher who cares for people with all types of spine disorders as well as brain and spinal trauma.  Her clinical expertise includes tailoring an approach to best fit the patient and their disease including using minimally invasive techniques. Her research focus is neurosurgical decision-making and patient-doctor communication as well as health care disparities.  She combines bioethics theory with empirical data science to tackle complex decision-making problems in neurosurgery.  Dr. Williamson is a member of the Center for Outcomes and Patient Safety in Surgery (COMPASS) at Massachusetts General Hospital.

Dr. Williamson comes to MGH from Duke University.  At Duke, she completed a neurosurgery residency.  She then completed an intramural fellowship at Duke as part of the combined neurosurgery and orthopedic surgery complex spine fellowship approved by the Committee on Advanced Subspecialty Training (CAST).  Her clinical skills were recognized when she was named the Resident Clinician of the Year (2017) and her leadership skills were recognized with the Leadership Award (2020).  She completed the University of Chicago Maclean and American College of Surgeons Surgical Ethics Fellowship (2021).  She is a graduate of the Yale School of Medicine (2014) and Yale College (2009) where she was a varsity soccer player.

Publications View
Commentary: "Everyone Needs an Ally": Piloting Peer-CAlly, a Peer-Coaching Program Using Existing Resources for Neurosurgery Residents.
Authors: Authors: Williamson T, Giusto A, Haglund M, McDaniel K, Weisberg L.
Neurosurgery
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Withdrawal of Life-supporting Treatment in Severe Traumatic Brain Injury.
Authors: Authors: Williamson T, Ryser MD, Ubel PA, Abdelgadir J, Spears CA, Liu B, Komisarow J, Lemmon ME, Elsamadicy A, Lad SP.
JAMA Surg
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Estimating prognosis for traumatic brain injury patients in a low-resource setting: how do providers compare to the CRASH risk calculator?
Authors: Authors: Elahi C, Williamson T, Spears CA, Williams S, Nambi Najjuma J, Staton CA, Nickenig Vissoci JR, Fuller A, Kitya D, Haglund MM.
J Neurosurg
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Erratum to intraoperative ketamine may increase risk of post-operative delirium after complex spinal fusion for adult deformity correction.
Authors: Authors: Elsamadicy AA, Charalambous LT, Sergesketter AR, Drysdale N, Adil SM, Freedman IG, Williamson T, Kundishora AJ, Camara-Quintana J, Abd-El-Barr MM, Goodwin CR, Karikari IO.
J Spine Surg
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Intraoperative ketamine may increase risk of post-operative delirium after complex spinal fusion for adult deformity correction.
Authors: Authors: Elsamadicy AA, Charalambous LT, Sergesketter AR, Drysdale N, Adil SM, Freedman IG, Williamson T, Kundishora AJ, Camara-Quintana J, Abd-El-Barr MM, Goodwin CR, Karikari IO.
J Spine Surg
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Independent Associations With 30- and 90-Day Unplanned Readmissions After Elective Lumbar Spine Surgery: A National Trend Analysis of 144?123 Patients.
Authors: Authors: Elsamadicy AA, Ren X, Kemeny H, Charalambous L, Sergesketter AR, Rahimpour S, Williamson T, Goodwin CR, Abd-El-Barr MM, Gottfried ON, Xie J, Lad SP.
Neurosurgery
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Rate of instrumentation changes on postoperative and follow-up radiographs after primary complex spinal fusion (five or more levels) for adult deformity correction.
Authors: Authors: Elsamadicy AA, Lubkin DT, Sergesketter AR, Adil SM, Charalambous LT, Drysdale N, Williamson T, Camara-Quintana J, Abd-El-Barr MM, Goodwin CR, Karikari IO.
J Neurosurg Spine
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Women in Neurosurgery: Final Frontier of Career Women's Movement.
Authors: Authors: Corley J, Williamson T.
World Neurosurg
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Resection of lateral temporal lobe arteriovenous malformations.
Authors: Authors: Williamson T, Grant RA, Bulsara KR.
Acta Neurochir (Wien)
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