Focused Study

By completing one year of training, Clinical Neurophysiology fellows are eligible for certification in clinical neurophysiology.

During the year of training,  fellows are trained in the following areas of clinical neurophysiology with a focus on two of the three, where they will spend more time and are expected to become proficient in those two areas while being familiar with the basics and common disorders of the third area.

  • Electromyography and nerve conduction studies
  • Electroencephalography
  • Polysomnography and sleep medicine

Upon completion of training period, fellows are expected to:

  • Learn how to assess selected disorders of the central, peripheral, and autonomic nervous systems, and muscle.
  • Learn the normal and altered physiology of the central and peripheral nervous system, and muscle.
  • Learn the anatomy of the central, peripheral and autonomic nervous systems, and innervation of muscles.
  • Learn techniques and interpretations of the following electrodiagnostic procedures in normal and disease states:
    • Nerve conduction studies (NCS)
    • Motor NCS
    • Sensory NCS
    • Repetitive Nerve Stimulation (RNS)
    • Late responses (F-waves, A-waves, H-reflex)
    • Blink reflex
    • Electromyography (EMG)
    • Insertional activity
    • Normal and abnormal spontaneous activity
    • Morphology and stability of motor unit potentials
    • Recruitment patterns
    • Single fiber EMG
    • Autonomic testing
    • Evoked potentials: VEP, BAER, SSEP
    • Intraoperative monitoring
    • Electroencephalography
    • Pediatric EEG
      • Normal
      • Normal variants
      • Sleep-wake normal
      • EEG patterns with development and maturation
      • EEG in encephalopathies
      • EEG in patterns in different epilepsy syndromes
    • Adult EEG
      • Normal
      • Normal variants
      • Sleep EEG
    • Distinguish epileptiform from non-epileptiform activities and artifacts
    • Identify EEG patterns associated with common epilepsy syndromes
    • EEG in encephalopathies
    • Epilepsy Video/EEG monitoring
      • Physiology of sleep
      • Polysomnography and sleep disorder
      • Indications, instrumentation and protocols including standards for split-night diagnostic studies and unattended testing
    • Staging of sleep
      • Scoring of respiratory events and periodic limb movements
      • Use of CPAP and BiPAP in sleep disordered breathing
    • Evaluation of excessive daytime sleepiness
      • Multiple sleep latency test
      • Maintenance of wakefulness test
  • Learn the application of electrical and mechanical methods to the evaluation and treatment of a wide range of central and peripheral nervous systems, and muscle diseases including epilepsy, sleep disorders, traumatic disorders, congenital and genetic disorders, demyelinating disorders of the nervous system, degenerative diseases and neuromuscular disorders
  • Learn how to use intraoperative monitoring to guide surgical interventions
  • Learn the skills necessary for independent practice of clinical neurophysiology

Fellows also are given an opportunity for clinical research.