Benjamin Best, MD, joins the Children’s Minnesota neurosurgery team |
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Children’s Minnesota is pleased to welcome Benjamin Best, MD, a pediatric neurosurgeon specializing in fetal, spina bifida and epilepsy procedures. The addition of Dr. Best further enhances the region’s largest and most skilled pediatric neurosurgery team and offers greater neurosurgical access for patients.
Dr. Best will provide surgical treatment for:
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- Epilepsy including deep brain stimulation, responsive neurostimulation and vagus nerve stimulation
- Tumors of the brain and spinal cord
- Stereotactic and robot-assisted surgery
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Minimally invasive laser ablation surgery (LITT)
- Cerebral vascular neurosurgery and vascular malformations of the brain and spine
- Minimally invasive spine and pediatric spine surgery with and without instrumentation
- Congenital anomalies of brain and spine
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Hydrocephalus
- Traumatic injuries of the brain and spine
- Endoscopic surgery
- Chiari malformation
- Craniosynostosis
- Perinatal consultation
- Spinal dysraphism
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Dr. Best offers clinic hours in our St. Paul and Minneapolis locations. Born in St. Paul and raised in Wisconsin, Dr. Best completed a pediatric neurosurgery fellowship at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles.
The neurosurgery program at Children’s Minnesota has the largest team of pediatric neurosurgeons in the region and the most sophisticated technology, performing more than 500 neurosurgeries each year.
To refer a patient, contact Children’s Minnesota Physician Access at 866-755-2121.
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Caring for multiples and extremely premature infants: What you should know |
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The expert care team at Children’s Minnesota’s neonatology program specializes in treating multiples and extremely premature infants. The multidisciplinary team provides the highly specialized care that is often necessary for managing complex conditions associated with prematurity. Each year, they care for dozens of twins, several sets of triplets, and frequently a set of quadruplets. Most recently, the team cared for quintuplets — including the smallest surviving baby born in the nation and the second smallest in the world, according to the Tiniest Babies Registry.
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“We have wonderful outcomes for babies with complex medical and surgical diagnoses, including babies born at the borderlines of viability,” Thomas George, MD, senior medical director of neonatology at Children’s Minnesota.
With more than 500 health professionals and nearly 200 neonatal beds, Children’s Minnesota is the region’s largest neonatal program, offering “expertise across every medical and surgical subspecialty care that a baby might need,” said George.
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New neonatal hemodynamics program
This year, Children’s Minnesota launched a formal neonatal hemodynamics program, led by two neonatologists, Jennifer Berger, DO, and Stephania Cavallaro Moronta, MD, who have received additional training in this field. The program helps individualize the heart and lung support for critically ill babies to optimize their treatment plans and outcomes. “A program like this has been shown to decrease some of the severe life-altering complications of prematurity and decreasing the need for ECMO (a lifesaving intervention for babies with failing heart and/or lungs) in near term and term babies,” said George.
Read more about the Children’s Minnesota neonatal program.
Learn more about The Mother Baby Center Specialty Services, a partnership between Allina Health and Children’s Minnesota, that brings together a team of highly trained experts in obstetrics, midwifery, maternal-fetal medicine, neonatology and pediatric medical and surgical sub-specialty services.
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Measles cases highest in 30 years: What you can do to help your patients |
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Measles cases in the United States are at their highest rate in over 30 years, and cases are increasing among those ages five to 19 as the kids who did not get their MMR grow older. “We can no longer think of measles as only occurring in infants and toddlers,” said Wendy Berg, BSN, infection prevention manager at Children’s Minnesota.
Only five cases of measles have been reported in Minnesota in 2025, but the state’s measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccination rates are low enough that “we are at high risk for a measles outbreak to occur, such as the large outbreak we saw in Minnesota in 2024.” said Berg.
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MMR vaccinations are the most effective way to prevent measles. “Beyond that, health professionals can protect their patients from being exposed in their waiting rooms by developing robust and reliable waiting room screening processes, and promptly rooming any patient who has recent travel, fever, rash or upper respiratory symptoms, or has been exposed to measles,” said Berg.
The Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) shortened its measles exposure window from two hours to one in 2023. Berg found that during the 2024 measles outbreak, the shortened exposure window decreased exposure follow-up time and effort for the Children’s Minnesota health care team, and prevented unnecessary disruption, stress and post-exposure prophylaxis administration for patients and families. “Most importantly, the shortened exposure window did not result in an increased number of secondary measles cases,” said Berg. “We will continue to follow MDH guidelines to use the one-hour exposure window in the future.”
More measles information
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- Read an interview with Berg about the shortened measles exposure window here.
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Find Children’s Minnesota’s Measles clinical guideline here.
- Listen to the Talking Pediatrics podcast episode about the 2025 measles outbreak here.
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Upcoming education events: Legacy Lecture Series |
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Share the knowledge
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Children's Minnesota Physician Access |
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