what's the benefit of a neurophysiology fellowship?

[marqaha]

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I am on my MS3 neurology rotation right now, and the attending (a general neurologist with no fellowship training) was saying that EEG/EMG fellowships are good for academic neurologists that want to be experts in a small area of neurology and do research in that area.

It seems that general, non fellowship trained, neurologists can read EEG's and perform EMG's. So what's the benefit of a clinical neurophysiology fellowship to a private practice neurologist? It seems to be just more of the same training that you receive during residency.

The attending I am with says that residency programs are not training neurologists very well in EEG and EMG, so they tell their residents that if they want to do clinical neurophysiology in practice, they had better to a fellowship in order to feel qualified. Is there any truth to this? It doesn't change any ACTUAL qualifications, right?

Why did 78.6% of graduating neurology residents in 2008 have plans on pursuing more training?

 

[BlackFrancis33]

The advantage of the fellowship is in applying for jobs that prefer neurophys training. You may want to be in a situation where more of your time is spent reading EMGs and EEGs rather than direct patient care. In this situation, more training would be an advantage. In many situations, general neurologists can still read their own EEGs and do EMGs. More training = better qualified, especially right out of residency/fellowship.

The number of neurologists pursuing fellowship is striking, isn't it? IMO it has to do with the personality of many neuro types who want more education. Many neurology fellowships don't offer more pay (or prestige) so 'academic types' tend to pursue them for reasons like intellectual curiosity. I don't think this is a bad thing.

 

[bustbones26]

Keep in mind that not all neurology residencies are made equal. When I was a resident, my program required 3 months of EEG/EMG rotation at a minimum. During those three months, I had plenty of hands on experience with EMG; however, our patient population was mainly rule out carpal tunnel BS and not any really good neuromuscular cases. Colleagues of mine in other programs did one neuromuscular month where they got exposure to EMG (which is all that is required), maybe a little hands on, but got to see more intellictually stimulating cases.

It all depends. I agree with blackfrancis. Look at the job boards. Many want individuals that are fellowship trained.

 

[PhakeDoc]

Plus, I think it's something else that gives you "qualifications" in the public's eye. Granted, it might not be as big a difference as an ENT who has already had to do numerous facial plastics procedures during residency versus an ENT who does a facial plastics fellowship on top of that and then sells him/herself as a Facial Plastics Surgeon. But, I guess every bit to "differentiate" yourself from the competitors....

Also, I did hear from one private practice individual with whom I rotated with that their hospital wanted electrophys studies to be done preferably by those "specially-trained" in that area.

 

[undecided3yr]

I agree with the above, primarily more training/qualification in order to be more competitive in the job pool and be able to have procedures in your schedule rather than seeing 20 clinic pts daily.

How about the reason is to actually take care and diagnose your patient correctly? I dont know how many patients I have seen with either poorly performed outside studies, or more commonly completely misinterpreted studies. If you want to perform the procedure and know what you are doing, especially with EEG and EMG you have should do a year of fellowship, not just for the repetition of learning the procedure, but more so to tailor your study to the patient and actually interpret the results and then manage the patient.

It really depends if you plan to do these studies regularly or just use the equipment owned by your group for the occasional weekend spot EEG, carpel tunnel and neuropathy referrals.

 

[neurolddoc]

I agree with the above, primarily more training/qualification in order to be more competitive in the job pool and be able to have procedures in your schedule rather than seeing 20 clinic pts daily.

In practice you will be doing/interperting studies in addition to seeing 20 patients a day

How about the reason is to actually take care and diagnose your patient correctly? I dont know how many patients I have seen with either poorly performed outside studies, or more commonly completely misinterpreted studies. If you want to perform the procedure and know what you are doing, especially with EEG and EMG you have should do a year of fellowship, not just for the repetition of learning the procedure, but more so to tailor your study to the patient and actually interpret the results and then manage the patient.

This is the truth. I the era of primary care docs having physical therapists come into their offices to do nerve studies, it is a good thing to be an acknowledged expert.

An expert would know it is carpal tunnel