Research and Other Scholarly Activities

Introduction

No field is growing faster than the neurosciences, both basic science and clinical. Our department continues to expand in both arenas, with a departmental mission of bringing basic science advances to the clinical care arena (“bench to bedside”).

Fellows are welcome to use down time to pursue research interests—see the section Research Electives for details—but regardless are required to engage in some scholarly activity. Although “scholarly activity” is usually taken to mean peer-reviewed publication, it is also evidenced by participation in journal club and conferences.

Latest Revision: 10/20/2023, Smitha Holla, MD

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Conference Presentations

CNP Fellow
Presentation Requirements
80/20
EEG/IOM Requirements
50/50
EEG/EMG Requirements
Journal Club – Epilepsy Research Meeting11
Grand Rounds11
EEG Basics21
EMG Basics1
Lecture- Epilepsy1Choose 1
Lecture- Neuromuscular
  • Didactic Conferences– Part of the conference series will include anatomy and physiology. Various epilepsy and neuromuscular didactic lectures will be organized by faculty. However, it is felt that the best learning occurs with teaching, therefore the fellow is responsible for working with faculty to present EEG/EMG Basics and resident lectures based on the fellow’s chosen track.
  • Journal Club: Each fellow will lead a journal club at least once during the training program. The fellow is responsible for choosing an article for review and selecting the appropriate faculty member to supervise the meeting. The fellow will prepare and present the article during journal club with discussion surrounding relevance/importance of the article, study design, patient population studied, statistics used, conclusions drawn, and the validity of the conclusions. The fellow must provide a thoughtful critique and be prepared to put the article in the context of the body of neurologic knowledge.
  • Epilepsy Case Conference: Fellows are expected to present the cases that they have been involved with and prepare a conference summary that is uploaded to the EMR signed by appropriate faculty member.
  • Grand Rounds – Each fellow will be required to present at the Department of Neurology Grand Rounds during the year of training. Any resident/ fellow may present at Grand Rounds at any additional time if so desired.

Scholarly Work

Fellows are required to complete at least one Research or Quality Improvement project during their fellowship.

  •  Research:
    • There are multiple opportunities for fellow involvement in research. Research electives are available to each fellow depending on interest and will not exceed 4 months. Faculty members have multiple ongoing projects, a list of which will be maintained by the fellowship coordinator.
  • Publications:
    • In addition to publication arising from research, fellows are invited to be a co-author with a faculty member for review articles, book chapters, editorials, or any other material that is published in peer-reviewed publications.

Professional Conference

Fellows are expected to attend one regional, national, or international professional conference during the program. Examples of these conferences include AES, AAN, ACNS, AANEM, WNS, Master MS Course, J. Kiffin Penry mini-fellowship, etc.

Other Activities

In addition to the above scheduled activities, there are numerous opportunities for the fellow to give presentations to students, nurses, rehabilitation therapists, medics, physician groups, and/or the public. The fellow is encouraged to participate in these activities depending on the specifics and available time, and they are expected to take an active role in teaching patients, medical students, and residents about epilepsy and neuromuscular disorders at the bedside during clinical care and during review of procedures, which will be observed by the faculty and feedback will be provided to develop teaching skills.