Rohit Prem Kumar, MD

Rohit Prem Kumar, MD, matched into the University of Pittsburgh Department of Neurological Surgery residency program in March of 2025 and will join the department on July 1, 2025. He earned his medical degree from Hackensack Meridian School of Medicine, where he was awarded the Dean Bonita Stanton Scholarship and was the president of his class. Prior to medical school, Dr. Kumar graduated summa cum laude with a bachelor of arts in biology from the New Jersey Institute of Technology's Albert Dorman Honors College.

During medical school, Dr. Kumar developed a strong academic and clinical interest in complex spine surgery, spinal trauma, and the application of artificial intelligence and computational methodologies to enhance neurosurgical outcomes. Between his third and fourth years of medical school, he served as a research fellow at the Spine Computational Outcomes Learning Institute (SCOLI), working extensively with advanced computational analyses under the mentorship of Nitin Agarwal, MD, and D. Kojo Hamilton, MD.

His research includes investigating the efficacy of novel therapeutic agents like romosozumab for improving spine surgery outcomes and engineering marvels such as metamaterials to develop better spinal implants. Dr. Kumar's dedication to advancing spine surgery has resulted in numerous peer-reviewed publications in prestigious journals, including Neurosurgery, Journal of Neurosurgery and JAMA Surgery. Additionally, he is committed to patient advocacy and helped form the Spine and Scoliosis Patient Support Group to provide a community for individuals with spinal disorders.

Dr. Kumar was born in Hyderabad, India, and raised in Plainsboro, New Jersey. Outside of neurosurgery, he enjoys gaming, writing, photography, cooking, weightlifting, and spending quality time with his family and friends.