Overview
The Pediatric Epilepsy Fellowship Program offered through the University of Colorado Denver School of Medicine and Children’s Hospital Colorado is an accredited epilepsy fellowship through the ACGME, effective July 1, 2014. The program offers a one-year clinical fellowship in pediatric epilepsy. The fellowship can be expanded to a second research year; year two is dependent on the receipt of outside funding.
The fellowship in pediatric epilepsy was designed to be completed in one (1) academic year. The fellowship is a combination of outpatient care of pediatric epilepsy patients, including experience in the ketogenic diet, vagal nerve stimulation and drug studies, epilepsy monitoring and intra and extra operative functional cortical mapping, evoked potential (ESEP, VEP and BAEP) and the opportunity for research oriented curricular work.
The general goal of the epilepsy fellowship is to train motivated child neurology graduates in the subspecialty care of pediatric epilepsy patients. This includes advanced understanding in the medical management, and the identification and pre-surgical evaluation of intractable pediatric epilepsy patients, as well as the development of an ongoing clinical/bench research interest. The graduate should be able to diagnose and care for patients with epilepsy, including those with complications and diagnostic uncertainties.
The Specific Program Objectives are:
- Board Certification by the American Clinical Neurophysiological Society or the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology with special qualification in epilepsy
- Competent and independent application and interpretation of EEG in pediatric patients
- Competent and independent utilization of the Epilepsy Monitoring Unit, Intracartoid Amobarbital Testing, Neuroradiological techniques, and Evoked Potential in the pre-surgical evaluation of pediatric epilepsy patients
- Competent and independent care of both in-patient and out-patient pediatric epilepsy patients
- Competent and independent supervision of neurology fellows and other fellows and medical students on rotation in the Neurology Department.
Teaching is provided by the program director and other faculty. Faculty are certified by the ABPN with special qualification in child neurology and also have board certification in neurophysiology and have diverse interests and skills to meet the broad needs to provide the breadth of teaching necessary. The faculty actively pursue scholarly activities in the neurosciences and encourage fellows to do the same.
Scope of Clinical Training
Clinical Education
Direct supervision by epilepsy faculty in continuity clinics will demand excellence in interpersonal communication and will foster compassionate and state of the art pediatric patient care in the out-patient setting. Through this direct mentorship, advancements in biomedical, clinical, and cognate knowledge in the field of epilepsy will be learned. In the epilepsy continuity clinic, the fellow will obtain skills in system-based practice as well as practice based learning objectives. Additionally, training in the management of the Epilepsy Monitoring Unit will encourage the development of professionalism and ethics, as a diverse patient population, as well as diverse members of the evaluation team must be managed.
Major Rotation(s) / Methodology:
Epilepsy Monitoring Unit – identify appropriate pediatric candidates for long term monitoring, utilize available diagnostic and historical data to present and explain epilepsy surgical options, understand and utilize LTM for characterization of other difficult to manage pediatric patients, understand the basic principles of intra-cranial EEG video monitoring. In addition, the fellow will spend a month in adult epilepsy monitoring unit at the University to learn adult EEG waveforms in order to gain exposure to the difference between adult and pediatric EEGs.
Outpatient clinics – provide state of the art care in a tertiary referral center for identification and management of pediatric epilepsy patients, identification of possible surgical candidates, follow up care for post-surgical patients, follow up care for ketogenic diet and vagus nerve stimulation patients and investigational clinical trials management.
Independent Research (any admixture of clinical/ bench/curricular) – develop an appreciation and foundation for ongoing contribution to the epilepsy literature utilizing experiences from both a clinical and curricular setting. Paper presentations are encouraged for the one conference attended annually.
Functional Mapping Techniques (WADA, Cortical Mapping) – in conjunction with interventional radiology and neuro surgery, specific invasive techniques that are utilized in pre-surgical evaluation are to be learned on an as-available basis.
How To Apply
We encourage child neurology residents interested in pediatric epilepsy to contact us in their PGY 4 year. Inquiries should be made directly to the Program Director:
Contacts: Please address application questions to:
Susan Koh, MD
Fellowship Program Director
Children's Hospital Colorado
Child Neurology
13123 East 16th Avenue, B-155
Aurora, CO 80045
Phone: (720) 777-6895
Email: susan.koh@childrenscolorado.org