History of the Department

Clinical Neurosciences was created in 1981 when the Division of Neurosurgery, then in the Department of Surgery, and the Division of Neurology in the Department of Medicine, joined forces to create a new academic Department of the University of Calgary focused on disorders of the nervous system. Dr. Robert Lee was the first Head of the Department and Dr. Frank LeBlanc was the first Chief of Neurosurgery. Initially, there were two units: one at the Foothills Medical Centre and the other at the Calgary General Hospital. Subsequently, neurological services were consolidated at the Foothills Medical Centre and a period of rapid growth ensued with both internal and external recruitment and research expansion under the leadership of Dr. Tom Feasby (Department Head and now Dean of the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Calgary). Dr. Feasby was joined by Drs. Garnette Sutherland (Head of Neurosurgery), Werner Becker (Head of Neurology) and Christine McGovern (Acting Head of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation).

Throughout its short history, the Department of Clinical Neurosciences has had an exemplary record of research accomplishment. Two remarkable examples of research success are Canada Foundation for Innovation Awards, one for the development of intra-operative MRI and a second for the design and testing of neuroArm, a MRI compatible robot for micro-neurosurgery. Clinical Neurosciences has garnered a well deserved national reputation for innovation in patient care, teaching and research.

Today, in addition to being an academic department of the University of Calgary (U of C), Clinical Neurosciences is a regional clinical department of Alberta Health Services in Calgary. Physician members of the Department of Clinical Neurosciences provide neurosurgical, neurological and medical rehabilitation services to the citizens of Southern Alberta, southwestern Saskatchewan and southeastern British Columbia.