William C. Welch | Faculty | About Us | Perelman School of Medicine | Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania

About Us
Our Faculty
William C. Welch

William C. Welch, MD, FAANS, FACS, FICS, FAANOS

Frederick A. Simeone Professor in Neurosurgery

Chair, Department of Neurosurgery, Pennsylvania Hospital

Neurosurgery Staff, Pennsylvania Hospital Philadelphia, PA

Neurosurgery Staff, Hospital of The University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia PA

member, Executive Committee Pennsylvania Hospital Philadelphia, PA

member, Operating Room Committee Pennsylvania Hospital

Member , Center for Bloodless Medicine, Pennsylvania Hospital

Chairman, Neurosurgery Committee on Academic Promotions (dCOAP)

Chairman , Department of Neurosurgery Pennsylvania Hospital

Co-Chair, Spine Committee, Pennsylvania Hospital

Member, Clinical Competency Committee (UPHS Department of Neurosurgery Residency Review)

staff, Neurosurgery Staff Penn Presbyterian Hospital Philadelphia,PA

Director, MS 200 Neurosurgery Rotation Pennsylvania Hospital

member, Bioengineering Graduate Group, School of Bioengineering University of Pennsylvania

Co-Developer, Perelman School of Medicine relationship with Cairo University, Cairo, Egypt

Medical Director , Spine Center at Pennsylvania Hospital

Vice Chair, Academic Affairs, Department of Neurosurgery

Vice-Chair, Faculty Affairs, Department of Neurosurgery

Department: Neurosurgery

Graduate Group Affiliations

Bioengineering

Contact information

Department of Neurosurgery
Pennsylvania Hospital
801 Spruce Street
8th Floor
Philadelphia, PA 19107

Office: 215-829-6700
Fax: 215-829-3361

Email:
william.welch@pennmedicine.upenn.edu

Education:
B.S (BS-MD program)
The City College of New York , 1983.
M.D.
State University of New York, Downstate Medical Center, 1985.

Permanent link

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Description of Research Expertise

Tarlov Cysts
Large Language Models
Spinal stenosis
Spinal biomechanics
Spinal outcomes

Description of Clinical Expertise

All aspects of spinal surgery (over 15,000 surgeries)

Selected Publications

Albayar A, Mensah-Brown K, Spadola M, Johnson M, Leibowitz L, Ali AS, Saifi C, Malhotra NR, Welch WC, Arlet V, Ozturk AK: Staging circumferential spinal fusions for adult spinal deformities adds admission costs without improving postoperative outcomes. JMIR Research Protocol 2025.

Howard SD, Pessoa R, Costello L, Silpagar M, Gardiner D, Tambe U, Rushanan S, Josi D, Nguyen J, Macaluso D, Malhotra NR, Welch WC, Ali ZS: Accuracy of RAPT score in predicting discharge disposition in patients undergoing spine surgery within an enhanced recovery after surgery program. Clinical Spine Surg 134, 2025 Notes: 10.1097/BSD.0000000000001810.

Sussman JH, Budihal BR, Gujral J, Santangelo G, Wathen CA, Ghenbot Y, Arena JD, Golubovsky JL, Gu BJ, Yoon JW, Ozturk AO, Anari J, Winkelstein B, Welch WC: Development and validation of a keypoint region-based convolutional neural network to automate thoracic cobb angle measurements using whole-spine standing radiographs. Nature Scientific Reports 13, 2025.

Dagli MM, Wathen C, Golubovsky JL, Ghenbot Y, Arena J, Santangelo G, Heintz J, Welch WC, Yoon J, Arlet V, Ozturk AK: Preoperative anemia is associated with increased length of stay in adult spinal deformity surgery: evaluation of a large single-center patient cohort and future suggestions for patient optimization. Spine Deformity 13: 625-637, 2025 Notes: 10.1007/s43390-024-01003-w.

Dagli MM, Turlip RW, Oettl FC, Emara M, Gujral J, Chauhan D, Ahmad HS, Santangello G, Wathen CA, Ghenbot Y, Arena JD, Golubovsky JL, Gu B, Yoon JW, Ozturk AK, Welch WC: Comparison of outcomes between staged and same-day circumferential spinal fusion for adult spinal deformity: systematic review and meta-analysis. Interactive Journal of Medical Research 14: e6729, 2025 Notes: 10.2196/67290.

Elsamadicy AA, Cross J, Reeves BC, Shaffer A, McGuire LS, Welch WC, Arnold PM, Rosenow JM: Characteristics of reported industry payment to Neurosurgeons from 2019-2022: the impact of COVID-19. J Clin Neurosci 134, 2025 Notes: 10/1016/j.jocn.2025.111089.

Dagli MM, Ghenbot Y, Ahmad HS, Chauhan D, Turlip R, Wang P, Welch WC, Ozturk AK, Yoon JW: Development and validation of a novel AI framework using NLP with LLM integration for relevant clinical data extraction through automated chart review. Nature Scientific Reports 14: 26783, 2025 Notes: 10.1038/s41598-024-77535-y.

Sussman JH, Dagli MM, Wald SL, Akhtar SS, Natan K, Xu JA, Li A, Dawson B, Welch WC: Exploring the experiences of patients with rare diseases in Pennsylvania: a community-based study. Public Health Reports 134, 2025 Notes: 10.1177/00333549251362711.

Ghenbot Y, Arena J, Dagli MM, Macaluso DM, Ghenbot S, Wathen C, Khela H, Ahmad H, Santangelo G, Golugobsky J, Wright J, Heintz J, Ali Z, Malhotra NR, Welch WC, Yoon J, Arlet V, Ozturk AK: The influence of the magnitude of sagittal correction and local junctional factors on proximal junctional kyphosis and failure following correction of adult spinal deformity: an inverse probability weighted analysis. Journal of Neurosurgery: Spine 13, 2025 Notes: 10.3171/2024.12.SPINE24899.

Dagli MM, Wathen CA, Golubovsky JL, Ghenbot J, Arena J, Heintz J, Macaluso D, Santangelo G, Ali Z, Malhotra NR, Yoon J, Welch WC, Arlet V, Ozturk A. : Intravenous tranexamic acid reduces blood loss and perioperative transfusion requirements in adult spinal deformity: a propensity-scored observational study. Journal of Neurosurgery: Spine 7: 1-9, 2025.