ISDRF People

John S. Thalgott M.D. Director Madilyne Fogarty B.S. Research CoordinatorTara Sutherland
Research Intern

International Fellowship Program Participants

Dr. Thalgott earned his medical degree from Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri in 1979. He completed his residency at Barnes Hospital in St. Louis and Los Angeles County Hospital. He is fellowship-trained in spinal surgery including a 6 month fellowship in deformity and trauma spine surgery. In 1986 Dr. Thalgott, a board certified orthopaedic surgeon, founded the Center for Diseases and Surgery of the Spine in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Dr. Thalgott is Clinical Director of the International Spinal Development & Research Foundation, based in Las Vegas. The non-profit Foundation’s current research encompasses implants and instrumentation, the use of sea coral as a bone replacement, and a new, gasless laparoscopic approach to the spine, as well as a wide variety of minimally invasive approaches to spinal surgery. These approaches have been shown to reduce hospital stays, and accelerate rehabilitation and return to work status in preliminary studies.

Dr. Thalgott also works with spinal cord stimulation for patients who still have leg pain after spinal fusion as well as vertebroplasty for osteoporotic compression fractures.

Dr. Thalgott has been invited to speak in many forums throughout the world including annual meetings of the North American Spine Society; American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons; American Spinal Injury Association; Cervical Spine Research Society; International Intradiscal Therapy Society; Joint Section on Disorders of the Spine & Peripheral Nerves; American Spinal Injury Association; Scoliosis Research Society, and International Society for the Study of the Lumbar Spine. download resume here

Madilyne graduated from Tulane University with a B.S. in Biomedical Engineering in 2005. She participated in several long-term as well as short-term research projects and spent the summer of 2004 working on her senior thesis. Throughout her college career she was very involved in theatrical costuming and the arts. Following graduation, she spent the summer working for a summer music theater in New Orleans and left for Las Vegas less than a month before the strike of hurricane Katrina.

As the research coordinator for a small foundation, Madilyne’s responsibilities are continually changing. Currently, the foundation is beginning a new device study, working on software development for a navigation system, is wrapping up an FDA investigational device study, and is in the process of publishing three past studies that have come to term.

In addition, Madilyne also coordinates the international fellowship program, which allows doctors from China and Latin America to visit our foundation as part of an educational fellowship for surgical skill development and patient care. download resume here

Tara is currently a senior at the University of Nevada Las Vegas, majoring in Biological Sciences. She will complete her Bachelor's of Science in May of 2008. At this time she is interviewing at medical schools across the United States, and plans to begin her medical training in the fall semester of 2008. Her initial research experience was in a pathogenic bacteria laboratory, with primary emphasis on the enteric bacterium, Shigella flexneri. Tara joined the International Spinal Development & Research Foundation in August of 2007. This transition from laboratory to clinical research has allowed her to gain experience that may be more applicable to her future endeavors. Here, she primarily focuses on data collection and analysis, as well as composition of papers for publication of the results of the foundation's studies. Download Resume Here

Fellows

The International Spinal Development & Research Foundation orchestrates an international fellowship that hosts doctors from all over the world. The following is a list of the colorful individuals who have taken part in this fellowship program. For more information about our fellowship program, please see our Foundation page.

Sebastian Pombo 10/15/07 - 11/30/07 (Argentina)