About Assoc. Prof. Dr. Ali ZIRH

Assoc.Prof. Dr. Ali ZIRH was born on October 8, 1960, in Ankara and completed his primary and secondary education in Ankara. He graduated from Ankara Atatürk High School with first place, and he entered the Hacettepe University Faculty of Medicine. He graduated from Hacettepe University Faculty of Medicine on August 31st, 1983, as a medical doctor. Between the years 1983 and 1985, he carried out his state service obligation in Gaziantep and was rewarded with acommendation by the Provincial Authority for his work in this period. He completed his military service in Istanbul in 1987 and was discharged.

In 1988, he started his residency at Marmara University Faculty of Medicine, Department of Neurosurgery. In 1990, he attended the British Council’s courses in Glasgow and Edinburgh; as well as the European Neurosurgery Association (EANS) courses in Warnemünde, Germany in 1989; Zaragoza, Spain in 1991; Jerusalem, Israel in 1992; Brudge, Belgium in 1993; and in 1994, he attended the World Neurosurgery Association (WFNS) training courses in Antalya, Turkey.

He also visited Glasgow Institute of Neurological Sciences in 1990; Department of Neurosurgery, University of Pittsburg in 1992; Department of Neurosurgery, University of Virginia in 1992; Department of Neurosurgery, University of Washington in 1992; Division of Neurosurgery, Toronto Western Hospital, in 1994; Department of Neurosurgery, The Johns Hopkins Hospital in 1994 and participated in clinical studies.

He became a neurosurgeon in February 1994. He completed his master's degree in Neurophysiology at Marmara University Health Sciences Institute in March 1994. In September 1994, he completed the fifth of the European Neurosurgery Association's (EANS) training courses in Izmir, took the exams, and received his EANS diploma. On the same date, he participated in the European Board of Neurosurgery Primary Examination and won.

In line with his field of interest, Stereotactic and Functional Neurosurgery, he attended training courses on "Stereotactic Target Calculation" and "Neurostimulation for Pain" in Çeşme, İzmir in September 1994; "Stereotactic Neurosurgery Hands-On" in New-Orleans USA in November 1994; "Augmentitative Procedures for Pain" in San Francisco USA in October 1995; "Stereotactic Neurosurgery Hands on" in New Orleans-USA in November 1995;  "Deep Brain Stimulation for Treating Parkinson's Disease" in Minneapolis-USA in May 1996; "Interventional Therapies Workshop: Implantable Spinal Cord Stimulation and Drug Infusion Systems" in Washington-USA in May 1996; "Surgical Treatment for Movement Disorders" and" Interventional Therapies in Chronic Pain Management" in Montreal-Canada in October 1996; "Management of Patients with Deep-Brain Stimulators, Expert Course and Workshop"  in Kiel-Germany in June 2001.

Dr. Ali ZIRH returned from the United States in 1997 and started to work at the VKV American Hospital, performing functional neurosurgery interventions and DBS cases with the Microelectrode Recording and Stimulation technique at the single cell level, which is available in only a few centers in the world.

He started to work at Medicalpark Bahçelievler Hospital as of January 2009 and implemented these initiatives in a health institution where Social Security Institution patients could also benefit. Dr. Zırh, who started surgical interventions at Istanbul Medipol University in January 2015, continues his patient evaluations and DBS programming work at the new location of Medipol Acıbadem District Hospital, the new address of Medipol University Parkinson's Disease and Movement Disorders Center (PARMER), which opened in September 2018.

More than 30 years of clinical and surgical experience in the field of functional neurosurgery, which is his specialty, including more than 1900 surgical interventions for Parkinson's and other movement disorder diseases and more than 1400 DBS surgeries that he has successfully performed, made Dr.Ali Zirh the first name that comes to mind in movement disorder surgery in Turkey and nearby countries, and he enabled the center where he performs these surgeries to become an Training and Reference Center in the international arena.

Dr. Ali ZIRH is a member of the Turkish Neurosurgery Association, Parkinson's Disease Association, European Society of Stereotactic and Functional Neurosurgery, American Academy of Advancement of Science, World Federation of Stereotactic and Functional Neurosurgery, International Association for the Study of Pain, American Pain Society, World Neuromodulation, American Neuromodulation Society, American Society of Stereotactic and Functional Neurosurgery, The Movement Disorder Society, American Association of Neurological Surgeons (AANS), and the Congress of Neurological Surgeons (CNS). By participating in international congresses and symposiums of these organizations held in different parts of the world at least 4-5 times a year, he shares his experiences with other colleagues, and also follows the progress and developments in his field of expertise day by day.

Dr. Ali ZIRH has many publications published in international journals, eight book chapters, and more than 150 congress papers. Dr. Zırh has also donated part of the income of his autobiography to the Turkish Neurosurgical Society for the training of neurosurgeons interested in learning functional neurosurgery.

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