Our Successes: Over the recent years, our program’s graduates successfully won excellent positions following fellowship. These include faculty positions at UCLA or other renowned medical institutions including other UC campuses. Some fellows chose to enter private practice or to work for large commercial neurophysiology firms.
Accreditation and Boards: The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) Neurology Residency Review Committee (RRC) accredits our training program. Each fellow is expected to complete the required training for the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology’s examination in Clinical Neurophysiology. All fellows are trained in EEG and video-EEG, and qualify for the subspecialty EEG board examinations given by the American Board of Clinical Neurophysiology. Our fellows are trained in-depth in EEG and related testing plus either EMG or Intraoperative Monitoring (IOM).
Breadth of Training: Each fellow must complete clinical or didactic training in other breadth learning areas of Clinical Neurophysiology including EMG, IOM, sleep testing, reflex testing, evoked potentials, movement disorders testing, and autonomic testing. Clinical case conferences integrate routine clinical neurophysiology with MRI, functional MRI, PET, ictal SPECT, MR spectroscopy, magnetoencephalography (MEG), and other cutting-edge technology.
Didactics: Fellows attend our weekly Tuesday two-hour lunchtime didactic sessions and journal clubs. Faculty members present most lectures. Individual training tracks also have smaller weekly tutorial sessions. Fellows learn about clinical care of epilepsy patients and attend surgical planning conferences.
General Neurology: Most fellows take general Neurology board examinations during September of their first fellowship year. To help with board preparations, some general neurology teaching is available through Neurology Grand Rounds, outpatient teaching sessions, and a large number of other organized neurology teaching programs. During the months leading up to the general neurology board examinations, the fellows may choose to form board review study groups along with fellows from other fellowship disciplines.
Special Procedures: Regular training includes programming vagus nerve stimulators, responsive neurostimulation, and interpretation of depth electrode recordings. For those who wish additional training, fellows also may learn about other disciplines such as transcranial doppler, cerebral blood flow measurements, and deep brain stimulators.
Neurology Residents: Fellows help teach neurology residents during the course of their weekly activities. Some teaching of medical students is expected, usually in two-week blocks several times during the year. Fellows cover the hospital for general neurology residents when those residents are on annual retreat 1-2 days each year.
Epilepsy Program: UCLA has had an outstanding Epilepsy training program for more than three decades. In their second year, most fellows participate in our ACGME-accredited Epilepsy program as a PGY-6.
Salaries and Benefits: The university sets salary levels and benefits. First year PGY-5 salary is over $65,000 annually plus excellent benefits. Second year PGY-6 salary is higher. PGY fellows qualify for a housing allowance, recently around $10,000 annually. The university allocates to each house officer funds for books, dues, travel, and other academic purposes. Details are set per house officer union contract.
