During his medical school years, Dr. Green was exposed to the extraordinary courage and integrity of paraplegics who volunteered in the spinal cord injury research laboratory where he worked as a research assistant. His early admiration for these victims of paralysis developed into a life-long commitment toward creating effective treatments and a cure for paralysis. This quest for the cure to paralysis continued throughout his residency training at Northwestern University. His research accomplishments resulted in his recruitment by the University of Miami, School of Medicine.
He arrived at the University of Miami Medical Center in 1975. He was charged with creating within the largest and busiest public hospital in America, Jackson Memorial Hospital, a spinal cord injury center, as well as enhancing the spinal cord injury program at the Miami VA. By 1985, his research and clinical activities led to his co-founding with the Buonicontis, The Miami Project to Cure Paralysis, now the largest and most productive spinal cord injury and paralysis research center in the world. Their research projects range from very basic molecular biology and genetic engineering to the most clinically applied programs including computer-assisted walking and allowing paraplegic men to father their own children. Many of the innovations created by the Miami Project scientist and clinical researchers are already being utilized in hospitals all over the United States and around the world.
Another project Dr. Green co-founded with Harry Horgan approximately 12 years ago was Shake-A-Leg Miami. It was previously a summer recreation program in Newport, Rhode Island that holistically served disabled children with an emphasis on sailing specially adapted boats. During the last 12 years, the Shake-A-Leg team has created a world class waterfront sports and education center which has moved into a new spectacular facility on the waterfront in Coconut Grove. Shake-A-Leg annually serves thousands of children and adults with physical, mental, and financial challenges. It is a community-based organization that mainstreams clients with their more fortunate South Florida neighbors. Its programs range from sailing specially adapted boats to classes in Marine Biology and even FCAT preparation for inner-city youth at risk. Shake-A-Leg has become an important part of the South Florida community and offers access to beautiful Biscayne Bay for thousands of people each year who were never before offered this possibility.
The Miami Project and Shake-A-Leg are both supported annually by millions of dollars in federal, state, and local government funding as well as from foundations and donors. Another major effort of Dr. Green is his work with Project Medishare for Haiti which he co-founded with Dr. Art Fournier approximately 10 years ago.
Project Medishare for Haiti is an organization that has a major commitment to the welfare and health of tens of thousands of Haitians living in the most isolated an underserved part of that country (i.e. the central plateau). Project Medishare is staffed by volunteers; dozens of well-meaning physicians, nurses, allied health professional from the University of Miami/Jackson Memorial Health Center as well as other public spirited citizens from our South Florida community. They have established a 24-hour, 7-day week hospital/clinic and recruited a team of over 100 local healthcare workers who provide direct observation therapy (DOT) for thousands of victims of HIV and tuberculosis. Their holistic programs include creating an industry for food production and distribution and vocational training, in addition to their initial focus on providing medical care.
Project Medishare in collaboration with Partners in Health are the largest employers in the central plateau and provide the health care needs and these other related programs to more than 50,000 well-deserving Haitians.
Surgical teams from Jackson Memorial Hospital/ University of Miami Medical Center frequently travel to Haiti to carry out surgeries including shunts for hydrocephalus, repairs for cleft palates, and other treatments that have never been available to this needy population.
Dr. Green also serves on the board of the Center for Haitians Studies and Health Services in Little Haiti and is active in many of their community outreach programs. In his spare time, Dr. Green is Professor and Chairman of the Department of Neurosurgery at the University of Miami and Chief of Neurosurgery at Jackson Memorial Hospital and the Miami VA Medical Center where he performs several hundred surgical cases a year and sees and treats thousands of patients.
All of the above has been made possible by creating an infrastructure known as the "Green Team" that includes his wife Kathy, his medical students' sons Jeremy and Jared and new Duke student, Jenna Green and their slightly overweight beagle Shelby. He is supported by a cast of hundreds of colleagues at the Medical Center as well as in the community which makes his work not only a pleasure but productive and successful.