Penn Medicine Provider
Neurosurgery
John H. Shin, MD, MBA
Accepting new patients
Sees patients age 18 and up
Penn Spine Center Pennsylvania Hospital
View 1 additional location
Make an appointmentCall 800-789-7366

About me

  • Director, Penn Spine Center
  • Division Head, Spine and Peripheral Nerve
  • Guggenheim Family Thomas W. Langfitt, M.D. Professor

I am a neurosurgeon specializing in spinal reconstruction surgery for scoliosis deformities and spinal tumors such as chordoma, sarcoma, schwannoma, meningioma, and metastatic cancer. I have a particular interest in cervical kyphosis and complex cervical spine surgery. Throughout my career, I have advocated for patient-centered multidisciplinary clinical collaborations. I am passionate about providing personalized and empathic surgical spine care.

Prior to Penn Medicine, I was chief of spine neurosurgery at Massachusetts General Hospital and associate professor of neurosurgery at Harvard Medical School, where I also served as director of spine oncology and spinal deformity surgery and founder of the Mass General Brigham Neurosurgery Complex Spine Fellowship training program. In 2022, I was honored as the inaugural Kingdon-Saylor Family Endowed Chair in Neurosurgery for exemplary contributions to Massachusetts General Hospital. I also earned an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.

In addition to performing complex spine surgery, I have leadership positions with many spine organizations. I am currently co-chair of the Journal of Neurosurgery: Spine Editorial Board and am often invited to lecture internationally at meetings and universities. I have directed surgeon education courses for the North American Spine Society, Congress of Neurological Surgeons, AO Spine, American Association of Neurological Surgeons, and the AANS/CNS Division of Spine and Peripheral Nerves. I currently serve on the Executive and Scientific Planning Committees for the AANS/CNS Spine Section and am the 2025 Scientific Program Co-Chair for the upcoming North American Spine Society Annual Meeting.

 

Education and training

  • Medical School: Chicago Medical School
  • Residency: University of Illinois Medical Center
  • Fellowship: Cleveland Clinic Foundation

Insurance accepted

My Locations

Penn Medicine hospital privileges

  • Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania: Has privileges to treat patients in the hospital.
  • Pennsylvania Hospital: Has privileges to treat patients in the hospital.
  • Penn Presbyterian Medical Center: Has privileges to treat patients in the hospital.
Dr. Shin is a Penn Medicine physician.

Qualifications and experience

My research

Robertus Pierik, Jantijn Amelink, Olivier Groot, Avik Som, Bram T van Munster, Daniël C de Reus, Theresa L Chua, Hester Zijlstra, Jorrit-Jan Verlaan, John H Shin, James D Rabinov, Daniel G Tobert Surgical Outcomes After Preoperative Embolization in Hypervascular Spinal Metastases: A Propensity Scored Study of 191 Patients , Spine (Phila Pa 1976), 50(7): 2025,437-446

Syed I Khalid, Elie Massaad, Joanna Mary Roy, Kyle Thomson, Pranav Mirpuri, Ali Kiapour, John H Shin An Appraisal of the Quality of Development and Reporting of Predictive Models in Neurosurgery: A Systematic Review , Neurosurgery, 96(2): 2025,269-275

Goodwin CR, De la Garza Ramos R, Bettegowda C, Barzilai O, Shreyaskumar P, Fehlings MG, Laufer I, Sahgal A, Rhines LD, Reynolds JJ, Lazary A, Gasbarrini A, Dea N, Verlaan JJ, Sullivan PZ, Gokaslan ZL, Fisher CG, Boriani S, Shin JH, Hornicek FJ, Weber MH, Goodwin ML, Charest-Morin R; AO Spine Knowledge Forum Tumor Overview of Molecular Prognostication for Common Solid Tumor Histologies - What the Surgeon Should Know , Global Spine J, 15(1_suppl): 2025,6S-15S

Aladine A Elsamadicy, Paul Serrato, Sina Sadeghzadeh, Sumaiya Sayeed, Astrid C Hengartner, Syed I Khalid, Sheng-Fu Larry Lo, John H Shin, Ehud Mendel, Daniel M Sciubba Assessing a revised-risk analysis index for morbidity and mortality after spine surgery for metastatic spinal tumors , J Neurooncol, 171(1): 2025,213-228

Kwan WC, Zuckerman SL, Fisher CG, Laufer I, Chou D, O'Toole JE, Schultheiss M, Weber MH, Sciubba DM, Pahuta M, Shin JH, Fehlings MG, Versteeg A, Goodwin ML, Boriani S, Bettegowda C, Lazary A, Gasbarrini A, Reynolds JJ, Verlaan JJ, Sahgal A, Gokaslan ZL, Rhines LD, Dea N. What is the Optimal Management of Metastatic Spine Patients With Intermediate Spinal Instability Neoplastic Scores: To Operate or Not to Operate? , Global Spine J, 15(1_suppl): 2025,132S-142S

Leary OP, Setty A, Gong JH, Ali R, Fridley JS, Fisher CG, Sahgal A, Rhines LD, Reynolds JJ, Lazáry Á, Laufer I, Gasbarrini A, Dea N, Verlaan JJ, Bettegowda C, Boriani S, Mesfin A, Luzzati A, Shin JH, Cecchinato R, Hornicek FJ, Goodwin ML, Gokaslan ZL. Prevention and Management of Posterior Wound Complications Following Oncologic Spine Surgery: Narrative Review of Available Evidence and Proposed Clinical Decision-Making Algorithm , Global Spine J, 15(1_suppl): 2025,143S-156S

Cho CH, Hills JM, Anderson PA, Annaswamy TM, Cassidy RC, Craig CM, DeMicco RC, Easa JE, Kreiner DS, Mazanec DJ, O'Toole JE, Rappard G, Ravinsky RA, Schoenfeld AJ, Shin JH, Whitcomb GL, Reitman CA. Appropriate Use Criteria for Neoplastic Compression Fractures , Spine J, 13: 2025,S1529-9430(25)00018-X

De la Garza Ramos R, Charest-Morin R, Goodwin CR, Zuckerman SL, Laufer I, Dea N, Sahgal A, Rhines LD, Gokaslan ZL, Bettegowda C, Versteeg AL, Chen H, Cordula N, Sciubba DM, O'Toole JE, Fehlings MG, Kumar N, Disch AC, Stephens B, Goldschlager T, Weber MH, Shin JH; AO Spine Knowledge Forum Tumor Malnutrition in Spine Oncology: Where Are We and What Are We Measuring? , Global Spine J, 15(1_suppl): 2025,29S-46S

Khalid SI, Massaad E, Shin JH Assessing the prognostic impact of body composition phenotypes on surgical outcomes and survival in patients with spinal metastasis: a deep learning approach to preoperative CT analysis , J Neurosurg Spine, 42(3): 2024,356-365

Jantijn Amelink, Robertus Pierik, Olivier Groot, John H Shin, Jorrit-Jan Verlaan, Daniel Tobert Comparative Analysis of Surgical Outcomes in Separation Surgery vs. Anterior Reconstruction for Metastatic Epidural Spinal Cord Compression , Spine (Phila Pa 1976): 2024