Education & Training

Child Neurology Residency Program

(Please visit the Division of Pediatric Neurology web site for more specific information, including details about the faculty and clinical research.)

Duke University Medical Center is a world-renowned institution offering a unique training experience in child neurology. Our residency is a three-year ACGME accredited training program in Neurology with Special Qualification in Child Neurology. Upon completion of our program, graduates are eligible to take the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology certifying examination. Our program offers exceptional training across all aspects of neurology. The first year is comprised of exclusively adult rotations during which the resident learns the fundamentals of the clinical neurological examination and diagnosis, appropriate use of diagnostic techniques, and overall management of neurological disease. Clinical rotations include inpatient neurology wards, inpatient neurology consults, outpatient neurology clinics (both general neurology and subspecialty clinics in sleep, epilepsy, and movements disorders), and neurointensive care.

The second and third years of the residency are dedicated to child neurology and clinical neuroscience electives. A total of 12 months is spent on the inpatient/consult pediatric neurology service and outpatient clinics including pediatric subspecialty clinics in epilepsy, neuromuscular disease, neurofibromatosis, headache, cerebral palsy and spasticity, autism, and neurometabolic disease. Our program benefits significantly from our Bone Marrow Transplantation Unit which offers our residents unique exposure to many of the rare neurodegenerative disorders being evaluated for transplant.

Clinical neuroscience electives are available in child psychiatry, neuro-oncology, genetics and metabolism, electroencephalography and epilepsy, movement disorders, electromyography and neuromuscular medicine, neuroradiology, neurodevelopment and behavior, neurosurgery, neuropathology, neuro-ophthalmology, sleep, and intraoperative monitoring. A designated research rotation is required early in the second year with the goal of the resident designing his or her own research project to be worked on throughout the last two years of training. This rotation includes a series of didactic lectures on study design and biostatistics. Opportunities for a basic science research elective are also available to interested residents.

Our program offers an academically rich environment with multiple didactic conferences available for our residents to attend including: the Basic Neuroscience Series, Clinical Neurophysiology Conference, Stroke Conference, Neurobehavioral Conference, Neurocritical Care Conference, Evidence-based Medicine, and Pediatric Neurology conference. These conferences occur daily at noon on a rotating schedule. Adult and Pediatric Neurology Morning report, Neuroscience and Pediatric Grand Rounds, Interesting Case Conference, Muscle Pathology Conference, Pediatric Neurology Journal Club, Brain Cutting, and Epilepsy Conference are each held on weekly basis and are routinely attended by our residents. As we feel these didactic programs are very important in the development and learning of our residents, every effort is made to assure that clinical duties do no encroach on these teaching activities.

Our residents also gain valuable experience in teaching and leadership throughout their training. As the residents advance in their training, they become more involved with the teaching of the rotating adult neurology, pediatric, and psychiatry residents, as well as medical students. Several formal didactic lectures and Neuroscience Grand Rounds are given by our residents throughout their last two years.

There are many research opportunities available to the child neurology residents in our program. The division is actively involved in research collaborations with our Neonatal Intensive Care Nursery, Pediatric Intensive Care Unit, Bone Marrow Transplant Unit, Department of Neurobiology, Division of Genetics and Metabolism, and the Division of Neuroradiology, as well as the Duke Brain Imaging and Analysis Center, the Duke Institute for Genome Sciences and Policy, the Duke School of Engineering, and the Duke Clinical Research Unit. Multiple research opportunities for our residents exist during their training and may even be carried on after completion of the program with these and other research programs here at Duke. We are currently interviewing for the year 2012. The years 2010 and 2011 are already filled. We accept one candidate per year.

Our staff consists of five board-certified pediatric neurologists with varied clinical and research interests. We accept applications through the San Francisco Match at www.sfmatch.org. If you have any questions about the program, please email Terry Hales at terry.hales@duke.edu.

William B. Gallentine, DO

Program Director

919-668-0477
william.gallentine@duke.edu

Strengths of the Child Neurology Residency Program

Duke University Hospital is one of the largest and most respected medical centers in the country. Our team sees a large number and wide variety of patients with interesting and challenging pediatric neurological problems. We are members of the Department of Pediatrics at Duke, with all subspecialties as well as primary care represented. Our department consistently attracts outstanding residents for its training program, who are an added resource for our medical center. Most of the subspecialties offer fellowship training programs as well, which contributes to a superb intellectual and academic atmosphere.

In addition to the general pediatric neurology clinics, there are a variety of subspecialty clinics which interface with child neurology that enrich the residency experience. Examples are the spina bifida clinic, the Muscular Dystrophy Association Clinic, the myasthenia gravis clinic, the adult and pediatric epilepsy clinics, a pediatric neurobehavioral clinic, a neurogenetics and metabolism clinic, a cerebral palsy clinic, a pediatric neurooncology clinic, and a movement disorders clinic. Epilepsy is a prominent component of child neurology and the Epilepsy Center and Pediatric Epilepsy Program at DUMC are well equipped to handle difficult problems. The center supports video-EEG monitoring equipment in both adult and pediatric rooms, a central monitoring facility, ambulatory monitoring, a fellowship program in clinical neurophysiology, an active epilepsy surgery program and numerous drug trials testing both adult and pediatric antiepileptic drugs.

Resident education is a large component of the Duke experience. There are a number of weekly or bimonthly conferences including Pediatric Neuroradiology, Child Neurology Friday Noon Lunch Conference, Stroke conference, Interesting Case Conference, Clinical Neurophysiology conference, Epilepsy Conference, Neuromuscular Conference and others.

Standards for Advancement/Remediation

The Pediatric Neurology Residency Training Program follows the guidelines set forth in the House Staff brochures "Corrective action and Hearing Procedures for Associate Medical Staff of Duke Hospital" and "Duke Hospital Medical Staff Bylaws."