EEG/Epilepsy fellowships?

[Brainiac]

Just a couple questions for anybody who might have an answer. I'm currently a PGY-3 in neurology and I'm starting to think about fellowship applications:

(1) Are there any good resources for obtaining OBJECTIVE information on the various epilepsy fellowships available?

(2) Which US programs are considered to be good pharmacologic programs? Good epilepsy surgery programs? In particular, which are the reputable programs in California, Chicago, and Boston?


Thanks!

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[neurologist]

(1) Are there any good resources for obtaining OBJECTIVE information on the various epilepsy fellowships available?

Like what? If you mean stuff like the board scores of residents who apply there, the answer is "No." Just like residency, that info simply does not exist and/or is not shared. If you mean the important stuff, like level/type of research activity, how many surgical cases they do per year, backgrounds of the faculty, etc, that's all readily "google-able" or availble on the program's website.

(2) Which US programs are considered to be good pharmacologic programs? Good epilepsy surgery programs? In particular, which are the reputable programs in California, Chicago, and Boston?

Depends what you want. If all you are looking for is to learn how to read routine EEG better and how to manage meds, you can get that from pretty much any accredited EEG/neurophysiology/epilepsy fellowship.

However, if you want a really good surgical background, you are more limited. As with everything surgical, the "best" surgical epilepsy programs are those with high volume. A place that does >100 surgeries a year would be optimal. To drop a few names this would likely include places like Cleveland Clinic, Mayo, Harvard programs, Rush (top Chicago epilepsy program), Wash U, Coumbia, NYU, Penn probably. Sorry, I don't know much about Cali programs.

And don't get all bent out of shape about the "what are my chances" issue at these places. It's not as competitive as you might imagine.

 

[kanapen]

I'm a fourth year in the middle of the application process and was interested by this thread. What exactly is meant by a "surgical epilepsy program"? Thanks.

 

[neurologist]

I'm a fourth year in the middle of the application process and was interested by this thread. What exactly is meant by a "surgical epilepsy program"? Thanks.

A "surgical epilepsy program" is a combined group of neurologists and neurosurgeons in a center which performs surgical procedures targeted at treating epilepsy. Generally, that means identifying and removing or otherwise isolating the part of the brain from which seizures are generated (example: temporal lobectomy for complex partial seizures). Surgery is usually reserved for patients whose seizures are not controlled by medications.

Other procedures include implantation of vagus nerve stimulators and other devices aimed at controlling seizures.

In the past, epilepsy surgery was the sole domain of tertiary/quaternary academic medical centers. Over the last decade or so, however, the more relatively simple surgeries (temporal lobectomies, vagal nerve stimulators) are being performed more and more at lower level medical centers. The big academic centers are tending to get much more complex surgical cases or patients who have already failed one surgery elsewhere.

Here is a link you should look at for more detail on what makes an epilepsy program an epilepsy program:

http://www.naec-epilepsy.org/pdfs/2001_guidelines.pdf

 

[GalenWoman]

Best surgical: Yale and Thomas Jefferson

 

[MrRamen]

I'm a 4th year med student, interested in epilepsy fellowship after neuro residency. Rush and Jefferson both have a large surgical volume, and they are both high on my rank list. If I'm interested in getting exposure to and possibly doing some neurophysiology research in pre-surgical evaluation, what are the best programs out there?