Anthony Lawrence Asher, MD, FAANS, FACS

Dr. Anthony “Tony” Asher is president of the Atrium Health Neuroscience Institute. He serves as vice dean for neurosciences and professor of neurological surgery at Wake Forest University School of Medicine and clinical director of digital innovation for Advocate Health.

Dr. Asher co-founded the Neurological Surgery Residency program at Atrium Health Carolinas Medical Center. He has developed numerous pioneering national programs in surgical education and presently serves as neurosurgery service line director for IRCAD, North America (NA). He is a member of the IRCAD NA scientific committee and IRCAD international faculty. He holds adjunct professorships in neurosurgery at the University of North Carolina, Mayo Clinic, Wake Forest University and Vanderbilt University.

Dr. Asher was awarded one of the original Howard Hughes Medical Institute-National Institutes of Health (NIH) Research Scholarships and subsequently completed a fellowship in surgical oncology at the surgery branch of the National Cancer Institute (NCI), NIH. His laboratory and translational research have focused on cancer immunotherapy.

Since the completion of his neurosurgery residency training at the University of Michigan in 1995, Dr. Asher has developed one of the nation’s leading clinical practices in neuro-oncology, skull-base surgery, stereotactic surgery and trigeminal neuralgia. He serves as surgical director of adult neuro-oncology and co-director of the Gamma Knife Radiosurgery Program at Atrium Health Levine Cancer. 

Dr. Asher has served in numerous senior national leadership positions, including president of the Congress of Neurological Surgeons (CNS), director and vice chairman of the American Board of Neurological Surgery (ABNS) and chairman of the Central Nervous System Organ Site Committee of the American College of Surgeons Oncology Group (ACOSOG). He is the recent past president of the American Association of Neurological Surgeons (AANS). He is one of 12 individuals and the only private practitioner to lead both of North America’s major neurosurgical organizations over the past 74 years.

He has been a principal investigator or co-principal investigator on numerous Phase I-III clinical oncology trials funded by the NIH, bio industry and private foundations. Novel paradigms for the treatment of cerebral metastases developed by Dr. Asher and his co-investigators have been adopted as standards of care by a majority of North American cancer centers. He has led the development and implementation of national quality data programs in neurosurgery and spine care, with over 450,000 patients enrolled to-date in 4 primary platforms. These efforts have resulted in some of the largest cooperative clinical data research efforts in the history of North American neurosurgery, and they serve as the informatics foundation of key regulatory processes such as primary neurosurgical board certification. He is the author or co-author of over 230 peer-reviewed publications.

Dr. Asher has represented neurosurgery and other medical specialties in leadership and advisory roles to the AMA’s National Quality Registry Council, the National Quality Forum (NQF), the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, the HHS Office for Human Research Protections (OHRP) and Office for Civil Rights (OCR), the Joint Commission, the FDA and the HHS Secretary’s Advisory Committee on Human Research Protections.

Dr. Asher is a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons (FACS) and has been elected to the American Academy of Neurological Surgery and the Society of Neurological Surgeons. He is recognized internationally for his development of advanced treatment paradigms, clinical research, educational programs, care innovation and organizational leadership. He currently leads multi-disciplinary brain health initiatives designed to promote both individual and societal health and well-being.