Clinical training

You will be an integral part of the epilepsy team and will be responsible for seeing and evaluating challenging outpatients in four one-half day clinics and managing patients on the Epilepsy Monitoring Unit. During this time, you will care for patients on the inpatient epilepsy monitoring and consulting service and see patients in the epilepsy outpatient clinic and on the hospital consulting service.

The schedule of clinical activities is designed to achieve a balance between outpatient and inpatient care, and to ensure that you have experience with different aspects of epilepsy care.

First two months
During the first two months, you will have the opportunity to participate in the basic clinical neurophysiology (CNP) course. The course is a formal didactic program covering all areas of clinical neurophysiology. The anatomy, physiology, pathology and clinical neurophysiology features of disease are emphasized, along with the technical aspects of EEG and EMG techniques.

There will be testing in clinical areas of clinical competency during this program. Upon successful completion of the basic CNP course, you will relocate to Phoenix/Scottsdale to complete the fellowship.

Second 10 months
The remainder of your time will be spent at the Mayo Clinic in Arizona working with the staff of the Comprehensive Epilepsy Program. You will learn advanced techniques in daily EEG reading sessions which will include routine EEGs, emergent EEGs, interpretation of EEG utilizing intracranial electrodes including grids and depth wires.

You will manage diverse patients and will participate in surgical planning, including the use of intracranial grid and depth electrodes. Determining who is an appropriate candidate for the vagal nerve stimulator and understanding the programming of this device will also be a part of your learning experience.

Although the curriculum is flexible, the majority of the time will be spent in the Comprehensive Epilepsy Program with opportunities to participate in other areas of neurophysiology as scheduling and time permits.

Additional training

Evoked potentials
Fellows in the EEG laboratories have the opportunity to learn about the techniques and interpretation of evoked potential studies. This includes exposure to:

• Brainstem auditory evoked responses
• Pattern reversal visual evoked responses
• Somatosensory evoked potentials

Movement disorders and sleep disorders
In the EEG laboratories you also can learn about techniques for assessing movement disorders - including tremors, myoclonus, seizures, botulinum injections and others. A rotation through the comprehensive sleep disorders clinic in Scottsdale is offered as well.

In addition to these opportunities, the possibility of completing a second year of fellowship training may be offered.

Didactic training

Clinical conferences, seminars, small discussion groups, journal clubs and one-on-one instruction are all an integral part of the Clinical Neurophysiology, EEG, Epilepsy Fellowship.

You will participate in monthly epilepsy teleconferences with Mayo Clinic in Rochester . There also is a weekly multidisciplinary surgical epilepsy conference in which you will participate.

You will assist in instructing of local fourth year medical students and residents doing an EEG/Epilepsy rotation from other institutions.

You will have the unique opportunity to participate in academic pursuits, such as lectures, resident and medical student teaching, invited talks, clinical trials and drug studies.

Research training

Your research opportunities at Mayo Clinic in Arizona are outstanding. The hands-on clinical experiences in this fellowship, combined with our highly trained laboratory and statistical support teams, create an environment well-suited to scientific investigation.

An integral part of the Comprehensive Epilepsy program includes specialty training in amytal testing, drug trials and other clinical research projects. During this one-year fellowship, you likely will have at least one first author publication.

Your participation and any research project will be dependent on your professional interests and capabilities. Attendance at a national neuroscience meeting will be available for original presentations.

Call frequency

Your call schedule will vary by individual rotation. Mayo Clinic follows the recommendations of the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) and complies with ACGME's duty hour requirements.

Evaluation

To ensure that you acquire adequate knowledge and develop your technical skills, your performance will be monitored carefully during the course of your fellowship. You will be evaluated formally by your supervising faculty member after each clinical rotation. In addition, you will regularly evaluate the faculty and your educational program to ensure that your needs are being met.