I am a medical student interested in neurology, with the goal of becoming a clinical trialist. I am looking at residency programs now, and I am trying to find one where I can get exposure to clinical trials, especially in the field of dementia. Does anyone have an idea of programs that are good for clinical research training? Any opinions on places that offer the best training in dementia or related fields?
Major dementia clinical research sites?
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UCSF, Northwestern, Wash U, Mayo... I'm sure there are other excellent programs. Check the list of NIH-funded Alzheimer Disease Research Centers. Exposure to clinical trials will be limited during residency. There are more opportunities to be engaged in clinical trials during behavior neurology fellowship. Perhaps look into which residency programs have connected UCNS accredited behavioral neurology fellowship programs.
By the way, there's a Georgetown-NIH neurology residency.
Good luck!
By the way, there's a Georgetown-NIH neurology residency.
Good luck!
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The BN&NP programs, broadly speaking, come in two flavors: dementia heavy programs and broader/general BN&NP. My opinion, for what it's worth (not much)...
UCSF is unparalleled in what it does. They have a focus on frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD) generally speaking, but the research coming out of there is absolutely top notch. Bruce Miller is one of the nicest, smartest, and caring people you'll meet. They were recently awarded a $177 million dollar grant to develop a global brain health initiative. They're the primary administrative site of the ARTFL study, the main goal of which is to discover and develop important biomarkers for future trials in frontotemporal lobar degeneration. There's a fairly strong focus on progressive supranuclear palsy syndrome since the clinical phenotype is strongly predictive of the pathology.
Mayo/WashU are fantastic programs, WashU is very Alzheimer's heavy. Mayo has Cliff Jack (radiologist who was the main PI, I think, for ADNI), Brad Boeve, Ronald Petersen.
Cleveland Clinic Las Vegas is poised to be a huge name as well. Jeff Cummings (a giant in the field) is there and has moved strongly towards clinical trials.
Brigham and Womens and MGH both are great programs as well and have very well-funded and well-connected people doing very good dementia research.
Columbia has a huge public health/epidemiology slant.
This isn't an exhaustive list, and failing to mention a program doesn't mean anything.
As a resident, my opinion is that you should go somewhere that will give you exposure. If you'd be happy at any of the above, you obviously can't go wrong. They are all fantastic programs. If you'd hate living there and have reason to be elsewhere, try to go somewhere that at least has a behavioral neurologist. It's a very small field and having someone who is already part of the club will be helpful when it comes time to get into a fellowship.
There are other excellent programs within the UCNS BN&NP listing that focus less on dementia and more on a broader view of what the specialty is. Some of the above programs will basically give you both (e.g. BWH and MGH both have very active dementia as well as neuropsychiatry programs) whereas others will really and truly be programs designed to turn you into a dementia specialist (e.g. UCSF, you're going to be doing all dementia, all the time). There is nothing wrong with either approach, it's just important to know what the program you're looking into will train you for.
Hope that helps.
RS
UCSF is unparalleled in what it does. They have a focus on frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD) generally speaking, but the research coming out of there is absolutely top notch. Bruce Miller is one of the nicest, smartest, and caring people you'll meet. They were recently awarded a $177 million dollar grant to develop a global brain health initiative. They're the primary administrative site of the ARTFL study, the main goal of which is to discover and develop important biomarkers for future trials in frontotemporal lobar degeneration. There's a fairly strong focus on progressive supranuclear palsy syndrome since the clinical phenotype is strongly predictive of the pathology.
Mayo/WashU are fantastic programs, WashU is very Alzheimer's heavy. Mayo has Cliff Jack (radiologist who was the main PI, I think, for ADNI), Brad Boeve, Ronald Petersen.
Cleveland Clinic Las Vegas is poised to be a huge name as well. Jeff Cummings (a giant in the field) is there and has moved strongly towards clinical trials.
Brigham and Womens and MGH both are great programs as well and have very well-funded and well-connected people doing very good dementia research.
Columbia has a huge public health/epidemiology slant.
This isn't an exhaustive list, and failing to mention a program doesn't mean anything.
As a resident, my opinion is that you should go somewhere that will give you exposure. If you'd be happy at any of the above, you obviously can't go wrong. They are all fantastic programs. If you'd hate living there and have reason to be elsewhere, try to go somewhere that at least has a behavioral neurologist. It's a very small field and having someone who is already part of the club will be helpful when it comes time to get into a fellowship.
There are other excellent programs within the UCNS BN&NP listing that focus less on dementia and more on a broader view of what the specialty is. Some of the above programs will basically give you both (e.g. BWH and MGH both have very active dementia as well as neuropsychiatry programs) whereas others will really and truly be programs designed to turn you into a dementia specialist (e.g. UCSF, you're going to be doing all dementia, all the time). There is nothing wrong with either approach, it's just important to know what the program you're looking into will train you for.
Hope that helps.
RS
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http://www.adcs.org/admin/investigator.aspx
These are the sites that are doing ADCS trials as well as industry sponsored trials. Some sites are under the 'control' of psychiatry. But look, if you end up at Banner and you're a young, bright, enthusiastic person, then Tariot will be your mentor because he's awesome, even if he's psych (in terms of awesome mentors: ditto for the VAST majority of the names on the list). You could then stay at Banner or go anywhere you'd like.
I urge you to match for residency, not for fellowship. Residency: learn neurology, devote yourself to it. You can learn dementia during the fellowship, where you'll devote yourself to that.
These are the sites that are doing ADCS trials as well as industry sponsored trials. Some sites are under the 'control' of psychiatry. But look, if you end up at Banner and you're a young, bright, enthusiastic person, then Tariot will be your mentor because he's awesome, even if he's psych (in terms of awesome mentors: ditto for the VAST majority of the names on the list). You could then stay at Banner or go anywhere you'd like.
I urge you to match for residency, not for fellowship. Residency: learn neurology, devote yourself to it. You can learn dementia during the fellowship, where you'll devote yourself to that.
I will look through those sites! And I agree, residency is the time to learn general neurology, I just want to have a plan for the future.
I had not really thought about the field in terms of psych vs neuro control. Does it have a large impact on how the medicine is practiced at an institution? Is it more common for a site to be neuro- or psych-controlled?
I had not really thought about the field in terms of psych vs neuro control. Does it have a large impact on how the medicine is practiced at an institution? Is it more common for a site to be neuro- or psych-controlled?
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Actually, I forgot to mention that in many places geriatric medicine controls the trials. I think it is mostly neuro, but very many of those names are psychiatrists or geriatric medicine. I think, broadly and clinically speaking, that psychiatrists concentrate more on the neuro-behavioral manifestations. Geriatrics takes a big picture approach, "how are your bowels" and "is the Aricept really helping, let's try none now." And neurology is focused on cognition, clinicopathologic correlates.
In terms of who gets what trials, there is no pattern.
