Dr. Fred C. Lam, MD, PhD, FRCSC

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Get to know Neurosurgeon Dr. Fred C. Lam, who serves patients in Massachusetts. 

Dr. Lam is a Canadian board certified neurosurgeon with a PhD in Neuroscience. He delivers comprehensive neurosurgical care at St. Elizabeth’s Medical Center, spanning the Steward Network and serving the New England region.

His specialized practice encompasses both clinical care and research, with a particular emphasis on neurosurgical interventions for patients grappling with primary and metastatic tumors affecting the brain and spine.

Scholastically, Dr. Lam earned his Medical Degree from the Faculty of Medicine at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada, and completed his neurosurgical fellowship training at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA, specializing in the surgical treatment of brain and spine tumors. He then pursued a postdoctoral fellowship at the Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research at MIT, Cambridge, MA, USA, focusing on nanotechnology and precision medicine for the delivery of novel therapies for the treatment of glioblastoma, the most prevalent and aggressive primary brain tumor in adults. Returning briefly to Canada, he joined the Division of Neurosurgery at McMaster University as a Clinical Scholar, taking care of brain tumor patients during the COVID pandemic. During his time at McMaster University, he helped develop a translational research platform to study the mechanisms of brain metastasis. He then returned to the United States after the COVID pandemic to complete a neurosurgical fellowship at Northwell Health in New York, working with world-class neurosurgical-oncology surgeons, before returning to New England as an Attending Neurosurgeon at St. Elizabeth’s Medical Center in Brighton, MA, USA.

Dr. Lam is currently an Assistant Professor in Neurosurgery at the Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine and a Visiting Assistant Professor at Harvard Medical School. His peer-reviewed basic science and translational oncology research has been featured in prestigious journals such as Nature, Science, Cancer Cell, and Nature Communications. Additionally, his clinical research at Harvard, which explores innovative surgical approaches for brain and spinal disorders, has been published in the Journal of Neurosurgery Spine and Operative Neurosurgery. 

Neurosurgery is the medical specialty concerned with the prevention, diagnosis, surgical treatment, and rehabilitation of disorders that affect any portion of the nervous system including the brain, spinal cord, peripheral nerves, and extra-cranial cerebrovascular system. Neurosurgeons are doctors who diagnose and treat problems with the nervous system, often by performing surgery on the brain or spine. They treat strokes, tumors, certain types of birth defects, infections, and head or spinal cord injuries.

Dr. Lam has been invited to present his findings at national and international conferences and is dedicated to advancing translational research, bridging laboratory discoveries to clinical applications, to enhance outcomes for patients with brain and spine disorders. He is also committed to addressing disparities in cancer care delivery to brain tumor patients within the  New England community, the United States, and at a global level. 

Actively involved in academia, Dr. Lam serves as a reviewer and associate editor for various international peer-reviewed journals in neurosurgery and neuro-oncology. He is deeply passionate about science education and public outreach initiatives. 

Dr. Lam attributes his passion and love for the practice of Medicine to his parents, who are retired nurses, and his global community of family, friends, and colleagues, who remind him that the practice of Medicine is both an art and a science combined with a deep understanding of the human condition. Dr. Lam enjoys yoga, meditation, music, singing, cooking, and the daily practice of mindfulness, spirituality, and Faith.

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