Curriculum Overview/Rotations
The three years of Child Neurology training are split up into a clinical adult neurology year (1st year Child Neurology, PGY-3), a clinical child neurology year (2nd year Child Neurology, PGY-4), and an elective/research year (3rd year Child Neurology, PGY-5).
The first year is spent learning about neurologic problems in adults. The resident is exposed to an unusually wide spectrum of neurological disorders, including those that are acute and chronic, and common and rare. The first year of training includes adult neurology inpatient and consultation rotations at two academic hospitals and one community hospital. During this year, the resident also gets ample time in the adult and pediatric neuromuscular disease clinic as well as time on the inpatient adult and pediatric epilepsy service. The resident will have an average of 4 weeks of night float, split in two week blocks, and will take intermittent in-house evening and weekend call throughout the year. The on-call services will involve both adult and pediatric neurological consultation. The resident will start a child neurology continuity clinic during this first year, and will maintain this clinic for the next three years.
The second year emphasizes clinical training in Pediatric Neurology. Four months are spent on the Inpatient Pediatric Neurology service caring for inpatients with neurologic problems and performing consultations for pediatric inpatients including children in the Neonatal and Pediatric Intensive Care Units. Four months are spent on the Urgent and Emergency Pediatric Neurology service evaluating children in the Emergency Department and those referred for urgent outpatient evaluation. Four months are spent in the Pediatric Neurology outpatient clinics with each of the attending pediatric neurologists. The outpatient rotations include experience in general Pediatric Neurology as well as subspecialty clinics for children with epilepsy, movement disorders, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, neuromuscular disease, autism, and Tourette syndrome.
During the third year, the pediatric neurology resident does rotations in neuropathology, child and adolescent psychiatry, developmental disabilities, EEG, and neuroradiology. The resident also spends 9 weeks teaching the 2nd year medical students in their neuroscience course (Mind, Brain, and Behavior). This is an excellent opportunity for the resident to re-learn basic neuroscience and neuroanatomy, and to gain experience as a medical educator. The remaining time is devoted to electives or research activities. Potential electives include additional EEG, EMG, neuro-ophthalmology, neuro-otology, neuro-genetics and metabolic disease, demyelinating disease, neuromuscular disease, neuro-oncology, and movement disorders.
Child Resident Sample Schedule
Our program at the University of Rochester supports the idea of a flexible residency. This format allows for more senior residents to choose from different paths in order to best prepare them for their career of interest. The most common paths chosen include research, clinical (private practice), clinical/education (academic). However, residents are not limited to these options. During the third year, the pediatric neurology resident does several core elective rotations including neuropathology, child and adolescent psychiatry, developmental disabilities, EEG, and neuroradiology. The resident also spends 9 weeks teaching the 2nd year medical students in their neuroscience course (Mind, Brain, and Behavior). This is an excellent opportunity for the resident to re-learn basic neuroscience and neuroanatomy, and to gain experience as a medical educator. The remaining time is devoted to electives or research activities depending on their chosen path. Potential electives include additional EEG, EMG, neuro-ophthalmology, neuro-otology, neuro-genetics and metabolic disease, demyelinating disease, neuromuscular disease, neuro-oncology, and movement disorders.
The pediatric neurology resident has the option to stay on for a fourth year of research fellowship. The fourth-year pediatric neurology fellow devotes time exclusively to an independent research project guided by one of the investigators affiliated with the Division of Child Neurology. Current areas of ongoing research by Child Neurology faculty include:
- Molecular and Neurovirology
- Neuropharmacology and Developmental Neurobiology
- Epilepsy
- Movement Disorders and Motor Control Tourette Syndrome and ADHD
- Neuromuscular disorders
- Neonatal seizures
- Neurotoxicology
- Neuronal Ceroid Lipofuscinosis and other neurodegenerative diseases of childhood
- Experimental Therapeutics
