child neuro

[soulsearchin]

hey guys whats the deal with child neuro.whats the scope of child neuro?do they have a solid practice base?
is child neuro more or less competeive than adult?

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[llogg]

hey guys whats the deal with child neuro.whats the scope of child neuro?do they have a solid practice base?
is child neuro more or less competeive than adult?

I don't know about more competitive, but they make less money on average than adult neurologists despite requiring an extra year of pediatric training. (I know it's 2 years of pedi-training at most places, 3 at some, but I'm comparing that to one year of prelim medicine for adult programs.)

 

[Faebinder]

I did 4 weeks rotation in miami for Child Neuro.

Child neuro is sooooo different than adult.. In adult you're thinking stroke and MS... in child it's seizre this type, seizure that type... lotsa speciality syndromes that don't live long.

I really liked the fact that you see so many oddities but I didn't I just don't like kids.

My summary of the four weeks I experienced about child neuro vs adult.

Advantages:

1) Cool diseases.
2) A lot more laid back than adult.

Disadvantages:

1) I don't like pediatrics (must do pediatrics to get into it).
2) Pediatrics is heavily medicaid funded which blows.
3) Less procedures. (Maybe it's just my experience with that one.)
4) Heavy on Seizures. (I kinda like dealing with strokes and MS more.)

If you liked pediatrics more than you liked adult medicine this may be for you. I am giving you my biased opinion.

 

[neurologist]

hey guys whats the deal with child neuro.whats the scope of child neuro?do they have a solid practice base?
is child neuro more or less competeive than adult?

There is a vast demand for peds neuro, so you would have no problem finding work being a full time peds neurologist. But, as the other posters have pointed out, despite the demand, you won't make mega-bucks. Probably not much more than a general adult neurologist who doesn't do many procedures. Some academic peds neuro types will further subspecialize, often in epilepsy (see the post on "seizures, seizures, seizures"), but again, because these folks are usually in academics, it's not a huge income booster. I don't think peds neuro is particularly competitive to get into.

 

[J-Rad]

Here's my thought as a peds resident who did an adult and a peds neuro rotation in med school:
As for scope of practice-child neurologists are Board Certified neurologists who have special qualifications in child neurology so technically they have the full scope of practice as any other neurologist. Indeed I've met more than one that say they will see a few adults, but obviously, they went into child neuro so that is where their interest/expertise lies (as they spent the last 2/3 of their neuro fellowship in child, the first 1/3 in adult). Sometimes if they superspecialize they will actually see a lot more adults than they used to (i.e. epileptologists). I agree with the impressions of the field the above posters related but would add that many feel that Child Neuro has far more expansion potential for new diagnostics/therapeutics than many fields given the research out there (esp. genetics), and can be very procedural if one chooses (as neurologists any neuro fellowship is open to them: EMG...and Botox has become very beneficial for your kids with CP). The big downside that people don't mention that I hear frequently from Peds people is the "depressing" aspect of it i.e. having to tell the parent of a child with a newly dx'd neurodegenerative d/o that their child will die in a few years (depressing in quotes because it is not the majority of child neuro and that many also speak of adult in the same way and perceive adult as futile in many cases). In regards to the issue of kids vs. adult that is certainly a valid preference though many in peds find kids much less annoying than adults (the parents can be another story, but often parents are quite grateful to neurologists). Also while the dominant route of entering the field is after 2-3 years of peds residency the rules are written that it can be after 1 year of peds and 1 year of IM (though I would assume that would entail doing 2 internships which would suck [I wonder about 2 years Med/Peds?]) or after 1 year peds and either a PhD in neuroscience or heavy neuroscience research for a year.