Kevin T. Foley, MD, is chairman of Semmes Murphey Clinic and a professor in the Departments of Neurosurgery, Orthopaedic Surgery and Biomedical Engineering at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center (UTHSC) College of Medicine. He also serves as director of complex spine surgery at Semmes Murphey, emeritus director of the UTHSC neurosurgery spine fellowship, and chairman of the board and medical director of the Medical Education & Research Institute.
Dr. Foley earned his medical degree from the University of California, Los Angeles, in 1979, following undergraduate studies at Pennsylvania State University. After an internship at Letterman Army Medical Center in San Francisco, he returned to UCLA to complete his neurosurgery residency. He then served in the U.S. Army Medical Corps in a series of senior clinical and academic leadership roles, including assistant chief of neurosurgery at Brooke Army Medical Center, chief of neurosurgery at Tripler Army Medical Center, and chief of neurosurgery and program director of the neurosurgical residency at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. In 1992, he joined Semmes Murphey Clinic and UTHSC.
In addition to a full-time surgical practice, Dr. Foley’s research focuses on minimally invasive spine surgery, disc regeneration, image-guided spinal surgery, robotics, spinal biomechanics and outcomes. He has authored more than 40 book chapters and more than 245 peer-reviewed publications and has lectured at more than 700 scientific meetings and educational workshops worldwide. He has been issued more than 180 U.S. patents for medical devices and biologics, including innovations that advanced minimally invasive spine techniques.
Dr. Foley received the American Association of Neurological Surgeons (AANS) Cushing Award for Technical Excellence and Innovation in Neurosurgery in 2019 and the World Federation of Neurosurgical Societies William Beecher Scoville Award in 2023. He is a fellow of the American Association of Neurological Surgeons and the American College of Surgeons.
