John O’Toole

John O’Toole is a High Senior Professor at Rush University specializing in orthopaedic surgery, neurosurgery, and spinal cord medicine. His research focuses on spine surgery outcomes, spinal fusion, and spinal cord injury, with recent work examining the adverse impacts of diabetes, obesity, and smoking on fusion success and patient-reported outcomes. He has published extensively on metastatic spine disease management, malnutrition markers in spine oncology, and appropriate use criteria for osteoporotic compression fractures. His 2025 systematic reviews and meta-analyses in Spine, Global Spine Journal, and European Spine Journal address the economic burden of diabetes in spinal fusion and optimal surgical decision-making for intermediate spinal instability neoplastic scores.