Didactics

While bedside instruction remains at the core of Neurology residency, essential education is offered through the didactics outlined below. The wide variety of conferences, lectures, and seminars covers a range of topics in both basic and clinical neuroscience, and provides opportunities to interact formally and informally with faculty, fellows, and senior residents.​ This provides a structure upon which real-world clinical teaching occurs with a broad array of faculty offering real time, specific feedback based on direct observation encounters.

Week at a glance

*Bold text indicates core lectures; others are interest-based

• Grand rounds: Neurology Grand Rounds occurs weekly on Friday morning. Topics rotate between presentations on cutting edge science and challenging case presentations with engaging discussion.
• Noon conference: Our formal didactic curriculum consists of an 18 month series of interactive lectures presented in subspecialty blocks. Lectures are given by various subspecialists and are clinically focused. Lunch included!
• Chairman's rounds: Weekly case-based meeting with Dr. Chetkovich focused on clinical decision-making.
• Morning report: Two days a week junior residents meet with an attending (Dr. Chetkovich) for an interesting patient review. Each session the junior resident who was on call the night prior presents a patient. The attending then leads junior residents in localization of the patient's symptoms and exam findings in addition to prompting discussion on differential diagnosis, evaluation, and treatment plans.
• Professor Rounds: This conference is a time to watch a senior faculty member interview and examine a patient in a traditional concept of modeling these skills. It is an opportunity for the faculty to highlight key historical features, demonstrate physical exam findings, and lead a discussion on differential diagnosis and evaluation. 
• Journal club: Our monthly resident journal club is focused on the nuances of reading the literature so that residents are empowered to interpret evolving literature, shape their own research questions/studies, and skilled at applying it to their clinical practice. 
• Neuroradiology Rounds: A weekly conference where any resident or faculty member can present neuroimaging cases for review and discussion with a teaching-focused neuro-radiologist.
• Morbidity, Mortality, and Improvement (MM&I): Every other month, two of the senior residents lead a department-wide, and often interdisciplinary , review of challenging cases that highlight opportunities for system-based improvements
• RITE exam review: This review is a two-month course led by junior and senior residents, as well as neurology clinical fellows, to prepare residents for the in-service RITE exam. 
• Subspecialty conferences and journal clubs: There are many subspecialty conferences including weekly cerebrovascular case conference, EEG reviews, DBS conference, surgical epilepsy conference, and sub-specialty journal clubs. These are open to residents who are interested in additional exposure to any of these areas, but are not expected.