Program Overview

Introduction to the Neurology Residency Program

The University of Cincinnati's Neurology residency program is a four-year, categorical program that aims to provide a supportive working atmosphere, excellent physical environment, and a reasonable balance between service and education. The program is designed to train high-quality clinical neurologists who will practice evidence-based medicine in a compassionate manner.

Program Overview

• The program is an integrated, categorical four-year program.
• Residents matching with the program will complete their internal medicine training at UC Health University of Cincinnati Medical Center.
• The training program occurs mainly at the University of Cincinnati Medical Center.
• The program has a wonderful working relationship with partners in pediatric neurology at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center and the Cincinnati Veterans Administration Medical Center.
• Unique experiences are offered at West Chester Medical Center and Drake Medical Center to round out the educational experience.

Program Structure

• The program recruits ten residents per year, giving a combined cadre of 32 adult neurology residents.
• The size of the program allows for a better balance between service and education and offers earlier elective experiences in the training program.
• The program includes an intensive boot camp with general and sub-specialty didactics, diverse sub-specialty experiences, procedural workshops, and culturally relevant experiences.

Clinical Experience

• Residents are exposed to a vast array of neurologic problems and diseases under the guidance of an exceptional group of world-class faculty.
• Electives are offered in neuro-immunology, movement disorders, cerebrovascular disease, headache medicine, neuro-critical care, palliative care, neuromuscular medicine, neurophysiology, epilepsy, neuro-behavioral neurology, sleep medicine, pain medicine, research, neuro-ophthalmology, and neuro-oncology.
• The program has exceptional sub-specialty programs in cerebrovascular disease, epilepsy, epilepsy monitoring, neurocritical care, movement disorders, neuromuscular disease, multiple sclerosis and neuro-immunology, sleep, neuro-oncology, behavioral neurology, and headache medicine.

Education and Teaching

• Educating residents and fellows is a high priority.
• The program includes a full set of weekly didactic conferences that address specific clinical problems, the basic neurosciences, neuro-radiology, neurosurgery, neuro-rehabilitation, psychiatry, neuro-pathology, and clinical approaches to neurological diseases.
• Courses are offered in neuro-pharmacology and neuroanatomy, a monthly neuro-ophthalmology lecture series, and multiple weekly specialty conferences.
• Residents are expected to teach medical students, inter-professional teammates, and fellow physicians.
• An educational stipend of $500 per year is given for books and travel.

Research Involvement

• Residents become involved in clinical and basic science research during their second and third years.
• The program has excellent role models for career development in research, including faculty with K23 "Career Development and Clinical Research Awards" from the National Institutes of Health.
• Residents are prepared to present a paper at one of the national meetings and are incentivized to do so with an offer of payment for national travel beyond their travel stipend.

Active Patient Care

• Learning to care for patients with neurologic disease is a key component of the program.
• The foundations for excellent neurologic care are built during the internal medicine preliminary year.
• Residents are transitioned into caring for patients with predominantly neurologic disorders on multiple teams, including the UCMC consult team, the UCMC inpatient teams, and the UCMC Epilepsy team.
• Elective time is built in to help residents see the different sub-specialties throughout the year for career and educational growth.

Program Values

• The program values educational innovation and constant feedback from residents about how to improve the program.
• Decisions that affect the residency are conversations, and there is a high expectation for leadership in residents from within the program, even starting in the PGY1 year.
• Residents are evaluated at the end of each month by their supervising faculty and twice a year by the program directors.
• Feedback comes in both written and oral forms, and faculty are dedicated to giving feedback for resident growth.