Epilepsy Fellowship Curriculum

Schedule

Over the course of a year, the fellows schedule will be broken down as follows:

Electives

Epilepsy fellows have one month dedicated to electives. Fellows will have the opportunity to pick one week experiences in any of the following:

  • Magnetoencephalography
  • Neuropsychiatry/Neuropsychology
  • Continuous EEG Monitoring
  • Sleep
  • Outpatient Epilepsy Clinic
  • Scholarly Activity
  • Intraoperative Monitoring
  • EMG/Neuromuscular

Scholarly Activity

Fellows have one month of their fellowship dedicated to scholarly activity. Fellows are expected to identify a research mentor during the first three months of their fellowship and work with their mentor on a scholarly activity. Prior fellows have presented their findings at the annual American Epilepsy Society or American Clinical Neurophysiology Society meetings with submission for subsequent publications.

Fellows are also expected to work on a quality improvement project at Baylor St. Luke’s Medical Center, Michael E. DeBakey Veterans’ Affairs Medical Center, or Texas Children’s Hospital under the supervision of a faculty mentor aimed at improving inpatient and/or outpatient practice. This should involve clinical care of patients with epilepsy, EEG interpretation/performance, intraoperative monitoring, epilepsy monitoring unit care or other aspects or clinical neurophysiology and epilepsy.

At the end of the year, there will be noon conferences dedicated to the fellows presenting their scholarly activity and QI projects.

Examination

Fellows will have ample opportunity to prepare for the ABPN board examinations over the course of the year through didactics and practice examinations. Fellows are scheduled to take an in house in-service examination developed by our faculty in December as well as the AES Epilepsy Fellowship In-Service Training examination (EPIFITE) in March as preparation for the boards.

Training Sites

Fellows interested in the 12-month ACGME epilepsy fellowship at Baylor will spend time at our three inpatient teaching facilities and one outpatient clinic. Adult fellows will have one month experience on the pediatric side and pediatric fellows spend one month in the adult hospitals.

Texas Children's Hospital is one of the nation’s largest pediatric hospitals and the primary pediatric teaching hospital for Baylor. Texas Children's is one of the top five children’s hospitals in the country and serves as both a primary community hospital and a tertiary referral center. The epilepsy center at Texas Children’s is a level 4 epilepsy center with a busy surgical program and a 12 bed epilepsy monitoring unit.

Fellows at Texas Children’s will primary participate in three rotations while there. Epilepsy fellows will spend the bulk of their time in the epilepsy monitoring unit.

• Outpatient EEG rotation: This rotation will emphasize outpatient routine EEGs, ambulatory EEGs with exposure to intraoperative monitoring and select outpatient clinic experiences. The epilepsy fellows rotating through this will have a bulk of their time in clinic experiences including various faculty clinics, ketogenic diet clinic, Tuberous Sclerosis clinic, RNS clinic and Angelman’s clinic.

• Continuous EEG rotation: This rotation will emphasize interpretation of the long term EEG studies that primarily are performed in the ICUs at Texas Children’s Hospital

• Epilepsy monitoring unit: This rotation will involve interpretation of the EEG recordings of patients in the epilepsy monitoring unit at Texas Children’s including all invasive phase II patients. This also includes exposure to intraoperative electrocorticography cases.

The Michael E. DeBakey Veterans Affairs Medical Center, one of the largest VA hospitals in the country serving Harris County and 27 surrounding counties, has a primary stroke certification and also boasts only one of six national Parkinson's Disease Research, Education, and Clinical Centers as well as a Comprehensive Epilepsy Center of Excellence.

Fellows at MEDVAMC will participate in two rotations while there with most of the time dedicated to the epilepsy monitoring unit.

• Outpatient EEG rotation: Fellows will read all studies performed in the neurophysiology lab including outpatient EEGs, inpatient EEGs including continuous long term monitoring studies. The fellows experience also includes evoked potentials.

• Epilepsy Monitoring unit: Fellows also spend time in the 4 bed EMU. The MEDVAMC is a Comprehensive Epilepsy Center of Excellence and has referrals from many out of state patients. The EMU principally sees patient undergoing diagnostic evaluation for spells of unclear etiology and presurgical workups with occasional intracranial monitoring cases. The afternoon is set aside time to see patients in epilepsy clinic at McNair campus alongside the adult epilepsy faculty.

Baylor St. Luke's Medical Center, our primary adult teaching hospital is a 900 bed hospital with a comprehensive stroke center, a 20 bed NICU, and a four bed EMU.

Fellows at Baylor St. Luke's will participate in two rotations while there with most of the time dedicated to the epilepsy monitoring unit.

• Outpatient EEG rotation: Fellows will read all studies performed in the neurophysiology lab including outpatient EEGs, inpatient EEGs including continuous long term monitoring studies, intraoperative monitoring and evoked potentials.

• Epilepsy Monitoring unit: Fellows also spend time in the 4 bed EMU. Baylor St. Luke's is a level 4 epilepsy center and includes diagnostic evaluations, presurgical evaluations and phase II epilepsy surgery evaluations. The afternoon is set aside time to see patients in epilepsy clinic at McNair campus alongside the adult epilepsy faculty.

The McNair campus houses outpatient adult neurology clinics as well as the EMG lab. Epilepsy fellows will spend afternoons in the epilepsy clinic with the epilepsy faculty while on the epilepsy monitoring unit at the MEDVAMC and Baylor St. Luke's.