Mark R. McLaughlin, MD, FACS, FAANS

Founder and Host, NeuroRounds

Mark R. McLaughlin, MD, FACS, FAANS, is a board-certified neurosurgeon, educator, author, and co-founder of NeuroRounds.

Dr. McLaughlin co-created NeuroRounds to give medical students and physicians something that is difficult to find in traditional medical education: candid conversations with accomplished clinicians, scientists, thinkers, and leaders about real patients, real cases, and the ideas that shape the practice of medicine.

He is the founder of Princeton Brain and Spine, where his clinical practice focuses on complex disorders of the brain and spine, including trigeminal neuralgia and cervical spine surgery. Over the course of his career, he has published more than 100 articles on neurosurgery, authored Atlas of Cervical Spine Surgery, edited a textbook on lumbar spine surgery, and lectured internationally.

Dr. McLaughlin received his bachelor's degree in philosophy from the College of William & Mary before earning his medical degree from Virginia Commonwealth University, where he was elected to Alpha Omega Alpha. He completed his neurosurgical residency at the University of Pittsburgh under pioneering neurosurgeon Peter Jannetta and subsequently completed a fellowship in complex spine surgery at Emory University.

His interests have always extended beyond the operating room. He is the author of Cognitive Dominance: A Brain Surgeon’s Quest to Out-Think Fear and has written and spoken extensively about decision-making, performance, leadership, resilience, and the ways people think and act under pressure.

That broader curiosity is central to NeuroRounds. Discussions may begin with a neurological condition, an operation, or an unusual patient, but they are not confined to neurosurgery. Guests and conversations explore science, technology, ethics, judgment, leadership, medical education, and the philosophy and human experience of practicing medicine.

For Dr. McLaughlin, NeuroRounds is ultimately about learning how experienced people think: how they approach uncertainty, make difficult decisions, learn from failure, and remain curious throughout a career in medicine.