Prof. Dr. med. Mazda Farshad is the Medical Director and Chair of Orthopedics and Spine Surgery at Balgrist University Hospital, Director of the University Spine Center Zurich, and Full Professor of Orthopedics at the University of Zurich. He studied human medicine at the University of Zurich, completed his residency in orthopedics mainly at Balgrist University Hospital, and specialized in spine surgery as 'Chief Clinical Fellow' at the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York. He also holds a Master's degree in Public Health (MPH). Prof. Farshad has founded several centers, including the Unit for Clinical and Applied Research (UCAR) in 2014, the University Spine Center Zurich in 2018, and the University Center for Preventive and Sports Medicine in 2019. He is the founder and principal investigator of SURGENT, a project aiming to set new standards for patient-specific planning and performance of precision surgery in spine and neurosurgery, and initiated OR-X (Operating Room X), a national translational research and teaching center for surgical innovations.