Chief Medical Officer, Division of Neurological and Physical Medicine Devices at U.S. Food and Drug Administration
Temple University Lewis Katz School of Medicine Dartmouth College Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Academic neurosurgeon with extensive experience in clinical surgery, education, scholarly publishing, instrument and device design, hemostasis and anticoagulation, and regulatory matters at the FDA level. Before coming to work at FDA, I have done consulting for sponsors coming to FDA panel, pharmaceutical manufacturers developing novel anticoagulant and antidote agents, and device manufacturers as part of their design process. Finally I have extensive consulting experience in medical malpractice issues concerning clinical neurosurgery, devices, drugs, and hospital governance matters.
Christopher Miranda Loftus, the only son of Angel N. Miranda, M.D., and Eleanor Ward, was born on October 14, 1953 in Englewood, New Jersey. He was raised from the age of five years by his stepfather, Thomas A. Loftus, M.D., who like his father was an academic psychoanalyst. The Loftus family moved to various locations as his stepfather pursued an academic career, including Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia and the University of West Virginia in Morgantown. From the eighth grade on, he was educated in the public secondary system in Bergen County, New Jersey.
Dr. Loftus matriculated at Dartmouth College in September, 1971 and pursued a four-year course of study with a major in English and creative writing. It was his intention to pursue a medical career from the sophomore year on, and a career in neurosurgery was stimulated by the influence of Dr. Harvey Nova, a neurosurgeon in Englewood, New Jersey, where Dr. Loftus worked summers as an operating room orderly. He graduated cum laude from Dartmouth College in June 1975 and went directly to the State University of New York Downstate Medical Center College of Medicine for the prescribed four-year course of M.D. training.
He became a resident at the Neurological Institute of New York in late 1978. He served his surgical internship at the Presbyterian Hospital of New York and on July 1, 1980 began a five-year course of study at the Neurological Institute.
On completion of training in New York, Dr. Loftus was appointed to a position in the Division of Neurosurgery at the University of Iowa College of Medicine under the leadership of Dr. John C. VanGilder. He served in this unit from July 1985 until December 1, 1997. He developed an active cerebrovascular practice with emphasis on both intracranial and extracranial surgery. He maintained an active cerebrovascular laboratory at Iowa, funded continuously by Merit Review funding from the Department of Veterans Affairs, and pursued numerous projects with a unifying theme of cerebral collateral blood flow in a canine model system. At Iowa Dr. Loftus advanced academically to Professor of Surgery (Neurosurgery) in July 1993. Dr. Loftus left Iowa in December, 1997 to assume the position of Greenberg Professor and Chair of the Department of Neurosurgery at the University of Oklahoma College of Medicine in Oklahoma City. In 2004 he moved to Philadelphia to become Professor and Chairman of the Department of Neurosurgery at Temple University School of Medicine, as well as Assistant Dean for International Affiliations there.
Dr. Loftus has an active interest in neurosurgical education and publication matters. He has served on the editorial boards of Clinical Neurosurgery, The Journal of Stroke and Cerebrovascular Disease, and Neurosurgery. He is co-Editor-in-Chief of Techniques in Neurosurgery. He served as Editor-in-Chief of Clinical Neurosurgery from 1993-1996 and currently serves on both the AANS and CNS publications committees. Dr. Loftus is a member of the American Academy of Neurological Surgery and has served both on the Executive Council and as Secretary-Treasurer and then Chair of the AANS/CNS Joint Section on Cerebrovascular Surgery. Most recently he was Vice-President of the AANS 2009-2010 and Assistant Treasurer of the WFNS 2009-2013.
Dr. Loftus married Sara J. Sirna, M.D., on March 3, 1979, and they have four children, sons Christopher, Matthew and Mark and daughter Mary Catherine Loftus. They make their home in Center City Philadelphia, with occasional visits to a little second home in Marthas Vineyard.