Residency Training Program

	Application Procedure Benefit Information Clinical Neurophysiology Fellowship Conferences Outpatient Clinics Pediatric Residency Program Program Structure Research Residents SIGN Twin Cities Information U of MN Information

Departmental Overview

The University of Minnesota Neurology Residency Program has continuously graduated Neurology trainees since the 1940s. The program initially developed under the guidance of Dr. A.B. Baker, the founder of the American Academy of Neurology, continues to provide an outstanding training experience designed to meet equally the needs of the future clinician or academician. The excellence of the training program is one of the highest priorities of the department. Among the significant strengths of the four-year program are the range and the depth of the clinical experience provided at several teaching hospitals, the devotion of the full-time faculty at each of these hospitals to teaching, patient care, and scholarship, and the focus on both clinical and basic research in the midst of a first-rank neuroscience community. The faculty includes 53 clinical neurologists.  An additional 61 physicians with community-based clinical appointments are primarily engaged in subspecialty practice in disciplines closely allied to neurology (neuropathology, neuroradiology, neuro-opthalmology, neuro-otology).

Our program utilizes the resources of several University-affiliated Twin Cities teaching hospitals, each providing a unique set of complementary patient populations. University of Minnesota Medical Center is principally a tertiary referral center with an unusual spectrum of primary and secondary neurological disease. The Minneapolis Veterans Affairs Medical Center provides both primary and tertiary care for a large population of veterans drawn from a five-state area in the Upper Midwest. Hennepin County Medical Center is a county hospital, which supports an active emergency room and level-one trauma center, providing primary and tertiary care in a variety of neurological subspecialties. The staff of these hospitals includes subspecialty neurologists with clinical expertise in the major areas of neurological disease as well as investigators engaged in both clinical and basic laboratory research. Staff members are renowned for their teaching commitment and skill. Each hospital has excellent ancillary and collaborative services, including those of neuroradiology, neurosurgery, psychiatry, rehabilitation medicine, and clinical neurophysiology.

Training Program Overview (Match Number 149.44)

The Residency Training Program emphasizes excellence in clinical neurology. Full-time academic clinical neurologists who are actively engaged in clinical and/or basic science research throughout the year provide clinical teaching. Residents are offered a solid foundation in clinical neurology. In addition, all residents are required to complete, and present, one research project each year. Most of our graduates pursue fellowship training upon completion of their residency. Our program has produced academic neurologists, clinicians, researchers, and teachers.

Five positions in Adult Neurology and one in Child Neurology are offered each year.

Our Residency Training Program, rich in tradition, continues to offer one of the truly outstanding programs in the country. We invite you to apply to our program, visit our department and join us in our continued growth and development.

Program Strengths

The University of Minnesota is considered one of the premier Neurology residency training programs in the nation. Specific strengths include:

Clinical/Teaching Strengths

• Departmental commitment to education
  
• High quality faculty and superb teaching
  
• The wide spectrum of neurological disorders seen, encompassing a tertiary care teaching hospital (FUMC), an acute care county hospital (HCMC), and a VA hospital
  
• Ambulatory specialty clinics in Neuromuscular Diseases, ALS, Movement Disorders, Huntington’s Disease, Ataxia, Stroke, Epilepsy, Sleep Disorders, Pain, Dementia
  
• An excellent PGY-1 year experience in transitional medicine offered at the affiliated hospitals (rotations through Hennepin County Medical Center, the VA Medical Center, and Regions Hospital)
  
• Four-year neurology continuity clinic experience, beginning during the G1 year
• Numerous, excellent clinical teaching conferences
  
• Resident-run board review course
  
• Specialty rotations in neuropathology, clinical neurophysiology, specialty ambulatory clinics, psychiatry, neurosurgery, neuroradiology, and neuro-rehabilitation

 Research Strengths

• One of the most successful neurology departments in the United States in securing extramural research funding from the National Institutes of Health
  
• Numerous clinical/research programs of national prominence (Neuromuscular diseases, Ataxia, Dementia, ALS, Huntington’s Disease, Stroke, Epilepsy, Movement Disorders)
  
• Resident participation in research efforts through the execution of yearly projects, with close mentoring by research faculty

Intangibles

• The greatest residents east AND west of the Mississippi river (which runs through the campus)
  
• Very friendly and supportive community of residents and faculty
  
• Modest "night call" responsibilities for neurology residents, with most call taken from home
  
• Large “inpatient teams” with rotating residents from internal medicine, psychiatry, neurosurgery, family practice (as well as medical students) create a collegial atmosphere and limit patient care load
  
• Living in Minneapolis, a beautiful city with thriving sports, cultural and outdoor recreational scenes