Epilepsy Fellowship Program
The Division of Neurology at the Cincinnati Children's offers two fellowship training programs in Epilepsy (one or two years).
Three qualified applicants are accepted each year. Neurology fellowship training at Cincinnati Children's provides applicants with resources at one of the top ranked children's hospitals in the United States for both patient care and research. The Division of Neurology is one of the largest and most successful child neurology clinical and research programs in the United States, with innovative, recognized programs in Epilepsy, Epilepsy Surgery, Clinical Trials, and Neurophysiology. We are also affiliated with the University of Cincinnati Medical Center, which allows for flexibility in obtaining clinical and research training based on the applicants' career interests.
The one-year fellowship is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) and the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology (ABPN). Completion of the program qualifies fellows for the ABPN Epilepsy Board examination. The two-year fellowship is recommended for applicants interested in academic medicine, research and extended training in epilepsy. Mentored research in epilepsy-related fields is offered. The additional year allows for an emphasis on developing long-term research projects and application for funding.
It may be possible to combine a Epilepsy-Sleep fellowship in collaboration with the Division of Pulmonology and Sleep Medicine. This includes one year of ACGME accredited EEG/epilepsy training and one year of ACGME accredited Sleep Medicine training. At the completion of the fellowship programs, the fellows will qualify for both the Sleep Medicine and Clinical Neurophysiology/Epilepsy Board exams offered by the ABPN.
The goals of these fellowships are to develop excellence in clinical epilepsy, video/EEG monitoring, epilepsy surgery and related procedures, and investigational antiepileptic drug trials based on the fellows' career interests. The Epilepsy-Sleep fellowship offers the ability to extend expertise to the interaction between sleep and epilepsy. There are ample opportunities to develop skills in clinical research, education of residents and students, and clinical or research subspecialty interests.
The Comprehensive Epilepsy Center consists of a 10-bed epilepsy monitoring unit, EEG lab and AASM certified sleep lab, state of the art equipment including MEG and high density EEG, along with 8 fellowship-trained epileptologists, two neurosurgeons, one pediatric neuro-radiologists with expertise in epilepsy, one pediatric neuropsychologist, pediatric psychologists, three advanced practitioner nurses, a dietician, and multiple support staff including social workers.
The procedures offered include resective surgery, functional hemispherotomy and laser ablation of epileptic foci. In addition, vagal nerve stimulator implantation, responsive neurostimulation and corpus callosotomies are also offered. Finally, the hospital has dieticians dedicated to the ketogenic diet.
The center is designated as a National Association of Epilepsy Centers (NAEC) Level 4 epilepsy treatment center. The programs and clinics include the New Onset Seizure Clinic, Advance Therapies Program (2nd opinion), Epilepsy Surgery program, Epilepsy-Sleep program, VNS and ketogenic diet clinic. Our neurology program is ranked among the best in the nation by the U.S. News and World Report and consists of 30 faculty members.
Research activities include 6 NIH funded researchers with over 6 million dollars in the past year. Recent epilepsy publications from the group have appeared in the NEJM, JAMA and Neurology.
Sample Schedule
4-5 months of Epilepsy Monitoring Unit / Epilepsy Surgery
3 months of Epilepsy clinic / routine EEG
1 month sleep
1 month research
1 month of advanced neurophysiology and imaging
1 month of vacation
Conferences
Wednesday
- 8:00 am Neurology Grand Rounds
- 9:00 am Epilepsy Fellowship Lecture Series
- 12:00 pm Fellows' Rounds
- 4:00-5:00 pm Case conference or Journal club
Thursday
- 7:30 am Epilepsy Surgery Conference
- 12:00 pm Not Just Neurology (twice a month)
Monday, Tuesdays and Fridays
- 12:00 p.m. Residents/Fellows Conferences (clinical topics, neuroscience research meeting and neuroradiology conference)
