Physician
Behavioral Neurology/Neuropsychiatry/Geriatric Neurology Fellowship Program
The VA Boston Healthcare System and Boston University/Boston Medical Center have several fellowship programs available for neurologists and psychiatrists who are interested advanced training in Behavioral Neurology, Neuropsychiatry or Geriatric Neurology.
Several training programs are available. The Behavioral Neurology/Neuropsychiatry program is accredited by the United Council for Neurologic Subspecialties (UCNS), and can focus on clinical training or combined clinical and research training. There is also a research-track focus in which fellows spend approximately 75% of their time on research.
The program core faculty body includes behavioral neurologists, other specialist neurologists, neuropsychiatrists, other specialist psychiatrists, and neuropsychologists. The fellowship provides an interprofessional and multidisciplinary training environment with access to clinics in memory disorders, neuropsychiatry, traumatic brain injury, movement disorders, ALS, stroke, epilepsy, and neuropsychology, in addition to the inpatient psychiatry consultation-liaison service. The standard fellowship is 2 years, although there is the opportunity for both a shorter, 1-year, clinically focused fellowship and a 3-year research track. Applications are being accepted now for current and future years.
The rotations provide experience in the evaluation, diagnosis and treatment of a wide range of behavioral neurology and neuropsychiatry disorders including geriatric, neurodevelopmental, and neuropsychiatric disorders, causes of mild cognitive impairment and dementia including Alzheimer’s disease, traumatic brain injury, chronic traumatic encephalopathy, frontotemporal dementia, Lewy body dementia, along with rarer disorders (PSP, PPA, CBD, PCA), movement disorders, cerebrovascular disorders, epilepsy, and brain tumors.
You will be able to attend formal didactics including topics such as principles of neurobiology, nervous system development and aging, higher cortical functions, anatomy and function of brain systems, learning and memory, sleep, clinical manifestations of brain behavior disorders, the clinical assessment of patients with behavioral neurology and neuropsychiatry conditions, the neuropsychological assessment, diagnostic studies (neurophysiology, neuroimaging, sleep studies), psychopharmacology, and neurotherapeutics (e.g. deep brain stimulation, vagal nerve stimulation, rapid transcranial magnetic stimulation).
You will also learn the fundamentals of neuropsychology testing administration and interpretation including attending biweekly neuropsychology seminars, which will include case conferences and lectures in the major areas of neuropsychology.
Additionally, you will be able to attend some of our monthly neuropathology brain cutting sessions, monthly chronic traumatic encephalopathy consensus rounds, and weekly Alzheimer’s disease center case consensus meetings.
Through your fellowship, the faculty will strongly encourage you to develop your own clinical and research interests as you access nationally and internationally recognized clinicians and researchers within the faculty. Current areas of research available to fellows encompass basic cognitive neuroscience, neurobiology of neurodegenerative diseases, functional neuroimaging, EEG event-related potentials, epidemiology, genetics, false memories, cognitive strategies, and cognitive rehabilitation.
Individual weekly supervision with behavioral neurology and neuropsychiatry faculty will provide you with the opportunity to discuss clinical cases or specific topics more in depth. You will also meet with the program director to cover issues ranging from patient care to career development. At the end of the fellowship, you will be well-positioned for a career focusing on academic medicine as a physician scientist and/or cutting-edge clinical care of those with cognitive and behavioral disorders.