Electives
Neurology Residency Training Program Electives and Required Rotations
Required rotations include four months in child neurology, and one month each in neuromuscular disease, epilepsy, neuroradiology, neuropathology/neurooncology, neurorehabilitation, and psychiatry.
Residents in the DHMC Neurology residency program have 8 months during which they may choose to pursue further training in any of the elective rotations listed below.
In addition to training in adult or child neurology, elective options for residents can include research electives. Electives offered by the DHMC Neurology residency program are listed below. Besides these, individualized learning experiences are also easily arranged.
Elective Rotations:
Cerebrovascular Disease (Director: Dr. Tim Lukovits)
During this elective, residents will:
- Work in the cerebrovascular clinic.
- Gain experience treating a wide variety of hemorrhagic and ischemic cerebrovascular disorders.
- Learn the procedures and applications cerebrovascular tools, including MRI, MRA, MRV, carotid ultrasound and transcranial doppler (TCD) and cerebral angiography.
- Participate in clinical and epidemiological research.
Clinical Epilepsy (Director: Dr. Vijay Thadani)
During this elective, residents will:
- Provide subspecialty consultations.
- Evaluate and manage Epilepsy Monitoring Unit patients.
- Evaluate patients before and after epilepsy surgery.
- Gain initial experience with evoked potentials and surgical monitoring.
- See patients referred to the supervising epileptologist.
- Assist with epilepsy drug investigational studies.
- Participate in the epilepsy subspecialty conference.
Headache (Directors: Dr. Thomas Ward and Dr. Morris Levin)
During this elective, residents will:
- Work with members of the headache subspecialty group seeing patients in the headache clinic.
- Learn the approaches to the evaluation and management of headache disorders.
- Learn local anesthetic procedures and Botulinum toxin injection techniques used in treating head and neck pain.
- See inpatient HA consults.
During this elective, residents will:
- Evaluate patients with a wide range of neuromuscular disorders.
- Learn basic nerve conduction and electromyographic techniques.
During this elective, residents will:
- Care for patients with common and unusual neuro-oncology disorders, learning clinical evaluation and treatment approaches.
- Learn to evaluate and manage patients with primary and secondary brain and spinal tumors and paraneoplastic disorders.
- Attend Neuropathology conferences, and review cases with staff.
During this elective,residents will:
- Gain experience in ophthalmology as it relates to general medical and neurological problems.
- Evaluate patients who are referred from the medical and neurological sections of the clinic.
- Do inpatient consults.
Neuropathology (Director: Dr. Brent Harris)
During this elective, residents will learn the basics of:
- Evaluation of the brain in a medical autopsy.
- Surgical and medical microscopic CNS neuropathology.
- Muscle and nerve pathology.
Neuroradiology (Director: Dr. Clifford Eskey)
During this elective, residents will:
- Gain experience in interpretation of neuroimaging techniques including MRI, MRA, MRV, cerebral angiography, myelography.
- Attend appropriate neuroradiology conferences.
Pain Medicine (Director: Dr. Gil Fanciulo)During this elective, residents will:
- Assess and treat intractable pain problems.
- Become familiar with both medical and invasive approaches to pain.
Pediatric Neurology (Director: Dr. Richard Morse)
During this elective, residents will:
- Assess and treat children and adolescents with neurologic disease in both inpatient and outpatient settings.
- Attend pediatric neurology conferences as well as appropriate rounds and conferences in the Pediatric department.
Sleep Disorders (Director: Dr. Glen Greenough)
During this elective, residents will:
- Work full-time in the sleep disorders center.
- Learn to read and interpret polysomnograms and multiple sleep latency recordings
- Consult on a wide variety of sleep disorders.
Research
Residents can commit their elective time to research. A faculty member must approve this elective. Goals include gaining experience in research methodology, learning the use of investigative tools, and eventual writing and submission of at least one abstract covering work done in this elective.
Rotations at Other Sites
As part of residents' adult neurology training, they may spend one to two months at another approved institution under the supervision of the appropriate faculty member there.
