Totally agree with above. Admittedly I went back on forth a lot on NDD vs DB peds. DB Peds and NDD do vary a bit in philosophy (the history of both subspecialty creation, which occurred around the same time in early 2000s, is interesting and I attached a few PDFs that describe this), but also in training path. NDD residents/fellows complete a full child neurology residency and obtain subspecialty training in development on top of that, so the perspective of an NDD graduate will be heavily neurological. In some ways, NDD can be considered like child neurology "plus" type of training where the plus refers to an extra layer of developmental training -- weaved, rather than stacked, throughout the longevity of the other training -- on top of child neurology training. At least in my opinion, the hope of NDD training is to interrogate neurological mechanisms for these disabilities so as to develop the next wave of modern therapeutics, whether those be pharmacological or behavioral, that will specifically target neurological substrates. In the end, however, you would be a fully trained child neurologist (that can take child neurology call) with developmental subspecialization (similar to an epileptologist who has child neurology training and then further epilepsy subspecialty training following that). DB Peds trainees complete thorough developmental training following full pediatrics training (NDD residents complete an accelerated, albeit shortened, pediatrics training of only 2 years versus the standard 3 years). DB Peds graduates have huge strengths in coordinating care. They don't receive neurological training, but that of and in itself is in no way prohibitive in successfully treating of children with disabilities.
Here are two PDFs that help get at more concretely what NDD specifically aims to train you in:
http://www.abpn.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/NDDCERT2015-blueprint1.pdf
http://www.abpn.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/2011_core_NDD_MREE.pdf
As of right now there are 8 NDD programs. A few of these institutions (Boston Children's, Texas Children's, OHSU) have both DB Peds and NDD, while the remainder (Hopkins/Kennedy Krieger, Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh, UT Southwestern, Children's National, Indiana University) only have NDD programs.
You can go here (or later search for ERAS Participating Programs) to see a list of programs for both DB Peds and NDD:
https://services.aamc.org/eras/erasstats/par/display8.cfm?NAV_ROW=PAR&SPEC_CD=336
In all with either type of training you can see any type of patients you want based on how you structure your practice, either at an academic center or in private practice, how you want. However, NDD training will give as comprehensive understanding of the nervous system as possible (or at least that we know about presently) and how it relates to human disease and hopefully developmental disabilities, so you just have to decide if you think that type of training would be helpful for you individually or for your patients.
I am attaching a few PDFs that help describe the history of NDD and try to get at the NDD vs DBP thing but keep in mind all of these are written by NDD folks so they may communicate some bias. Sorry if anything I wrote above is biased to; honestly just hoping to provide as much information as possible so you guys can understand the subtle differences and make an informed decision
🙂
Let me know if anyone has questions.
