Deborah Pfortmiller, PhD, MA has been the Senior Statistician for the Carolina NeuroSurgery and Spine Associates (CNSA) practice for 11 years. She manages the Quality and Outcomes Database Registry that collects Patient Reported Outcome Measures (PROMs) from patients undergoing elective spine surgery. She utilizes data specific to the patient and procedure that is used to improve and advance spine care through evidence-based decision-making.

Deborah has over 20 years of experience as a statistician having worked in a University setting as well as private practice. She earned her bachelor’s degree in Psychology from the University of Tennessee Knoxville, her master’s degree in statistics from the University of Santa Barbara California and her doctorate in Psychology Research from Walden University.

In addition to the in-house registry database management, Deborah provides feedback to the surgeons showing how their patients improve over time compared to the rest of the practice. She provides data and reports required for the Joint Commission Advanced Certification in Spine Surgery. Deborah supports residents and surgeons with data analysis for publications utilizing the patient PROMs data. She submits the data she manages from CNSA’s in-house registry to the national American Spine Registry (ASR), the national quality improvement registry for spine care, which is a collaboration between the American Association of Neurological Surgeons (AANS) and the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons (AAOS).