The primary clinical site for all neurology residents at UIC is the University of Illinois Hospital & Health Sciences System. We share a close academic affiliation with the Jessie Brown VA Medical Center as well as Advocate Christ Medical Center and our residents rotate at both sites in the inpatient and outpatient setting. These 3 diverse settings serve as a major strength of our program, as each clinical site offers a unique patient population and educational opportunity, from traditional academic tertiary care, to the continuity of the VA healthcare system, as well as the traditional private hospital and clinic experience.

PGY 1

During the PGY 1 year, residents will rotate through inpatient neurology and the neuro-icu at UIH as part of their preliminary medicine year, thus gaining some exposure and experience heading into PGY 2.

PGY 2

PGY 2 year is focused on establishing a basic neuroscience foundation of neuroanatomy and neurophysiology while learning the fundamentals of clinical neurology through the neurologic exam and differential diagnosis. The majority of time during PGY 2 is spent on inpatient rotations at the 3 sites, and outpatient exposure involves the establishment of an outpatient continuity clinic, as well as a subspecialty clinic rotation. The outpatient experience is overseen by our Associate Program Director for Outpatient Neurology, Dr.Zulma Hernandez, with a focus on outpatient teaching and education.

PGY 3

PGY 3 begins to shift the focus toward higher-level critical-thinking expectations, involving development of diagnostic workup and therapeutic plans. It also incorporates EEG and EMG rotations, as well as more elective time.

PGY 4

By PGY 4, our senior residents serve as team leaders and supervisors, setting an example for the juniors to follow. This independence is reinforced with a significant amount of elective time as well. We round out the training program with months throughout residency spent learning the fundamentals of electro-diagnostics, neuroimaging, neuropathology, pediatric neurology and neuropsychiatry. Elective time can be spent expanding any of these basic skills or exploring the variety of subspecialties represented within UIC or our affiliated programs.

On-call coverage is provided primarily by the PGY 2 residents, with in-house supervision by PGY 4 residents for the first 2 months, and then senior home call for the remainder of the year. Residents also complete a research project over the course of residency, with the goal of publication of a peer-reviewed article. Residents are mentored by Dr.Dilip Pandey, a physician epidemiologist in the Department of Neurology, through the process of identification of an area of research interest, establishment of a research mentor, development of methodology, data collection, and eventual write-up and presentation of research findings, in order to gain the experience necessary to be productive in academic neurology.

Didactic teaching for neurology residents is overseen by our Associate Program Director Dr. Neelofer Shafi, and includes a robust daily conference schedule covering basic and clinical neuroscience, board review, Chairman’s rounds (clinical case presentations), journal club, grand rounds, and morbidity/mortality conferences. Faculty lectures represent all neurologic subspecialties, as well as contributions from other departments including as Internal Medicine, Neurosurgery, Neuroradiology, Psychiatry, Pediatrics, Pharmacology, Infectious Disease, Hematology, among others. In addition there are multiple optional multidisciplinary and subspecialty conferences (neurophysiology, neuro-oncology, vascular neurology, epilepsy, cognitive, neuromuscular etc) that are available to attend.