Pittsburgh, May 4, 2026 — Rachel C. Jacobs, MD, PGY-6 chief resident with the University of Pittsburgh Dept. of Neurological Surgery, has been named the 2026 recipient of the NREF Veena Mummaneni Women in Neurosurgery (WINS) Residents and Fellows Award for her abstract, "The 'CSDH' Grading Scheme for Middle Meningeal Artery Embolization: Stratified Risk of Surgical Rescue."
The award is presented annually by the Neurosurgery Research and Education Foundation (NREF) to recognize an outstanding female neurosurgery resident or fellow whose top-rated abstract will be presented at the AANS Annual Scientific Meeting. The fund honors the late Veena D. Mummaneni, MD, a longtime obstetrician/gynecologist in Oxnard, California, who was a strong proponent of women in medicine throughout her 37-year career.
Dr. Jacobs's award-winning abstract introduces a novel angiographic grading framework for middle meningeal artery (MMA) embolization in the treatment of chronic subdural hematoma (CSDH), a condition with rising incidence in the aging population. While existing grading scales describe the technical extent of embolization, the "CSDH" scheme stratifies patients by their risk of subsequently requiring surgical rescue, with the goal of helping clinicians identify, at the time of the procedure, which patients are most likely to need additional open intervention.
A native of Atlanta, Georgia, Dr. Jacobs joined the Pitt Neurosurgery residency program in July 2020 after earning her MD from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and her undergraduate degree in neuroscience and behavioral biology from Emory University. Her clinical and research interests center on open vascular and endovascular neurosurgery, including the endovascular treatment of intracranial aneurysms, arteriovenous malformations, and arteriovenous fistulas.