About Us

Our mission is to provide patients in need with access to advanced neurosurgical procedures and to educate providers on advancements in neurosurgical technique and care. 

mission:brain  (Bridging Resources and Advancing International Neuroscience) is a nonprofit organization with the goal of providing neurosurgical expertise and resources to patients, caregivers, and healthcare providers in underserved areas throughout the world. 

Our ultimate goal is to create a network that links more and more surgeons and caregivers to hospitals and patients without the money, equipment or training to treat difficult neurosurgical diseases.  We wish to share the knowledge learned in one system with others in order to join together to treat complicated neurosurgical conditions.

Treat.

We are, first and foremost, healers. Drawing from the vast expertise of our team of volunteers, who have dedicated their careers to advancing neurosurgical care, we aim to bridge the gap in the disparity of care delivery. In many parts of the world, patients go untreated for lack of resources. It is particularly acute for those needing neurosurgical care, which is often costly. In developed countries, we no longer see children with enlarged heads for lack of a drain that would treat their hydrocephalus. We take for granted the number of aneurysm clips needed, the number of image slices in CT scans, or the required implants in spine surgery. With our local partners, we treat patients free of charge and provide the necessary supplies and equipment. 

Educate

"Give a man a fish, and you'll feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, and you've fed him for a lifetime."  Treating patients one encounter at a time only goes so far, however, so our goal is to maximize our impact through training and education. We seek partnerships that foster the advancement of neuroscience through direct exchange of knowledge and ideas and opportunities for collaboration in research projects. This model enables our efforts to be sustainable and long term, and as is true with meaningful partnerships, the flow of ideas and learning goes both ways. We learn from each other. We inspire each other and our communities to move forward and thrive.

Empower

We have become a community and a movement. We empower our patients to live lives full of possibilities. We empower our colleagues, partners, students, and volunteers to reimagine what is possible, to aspire to better practice, better care, better tomorrows. We are each of us empowered to be part of the solution, part of the community. Just as 86 billion microscopic nerve cells all linked together to create one remarkable brain, so too, can each of us be one in our effort to treat, educate, and empower.