Behavioral Neurology & Neuropsychiatry Fellowship
The Neurobehavioral Disorders Program at the University of Colorado School of Medicine offers a fellowship in Behavioral Neurology & Neuropsychiatry, including a 12-month clinician-educator track and a 24-month clinician-scientist track. The availability of slots in these tracks is contingent upon funding, which varies from year-to-year. Applicants are encouraged to contact the training program director regarding their interest in and availability of slots in these tracks prior to making application to this fellowship training program.
Recent efforts by the American Neuropsychiatric Association (ANPA), Society for Behavioral and Cognitive Neurology (SBCN), and the Behavioral Neurology Section of the American Academy of Neurology (AAN) have resulted in the consolidation of Neuropsychiatry and Behavioral Neurology as a single medical subspecialty. The Behavioral Neurology & Neuropsychiatry Fellowship Training Program at the University of Colorado offers training in this subspecialty in accordance with the training elements described by ANPA, SBCN, and AAN, and is described herein.
The Behavioral Neurology & Neuropsychiatry (BN & NP) Fellowship Training Program will facilitate the fellow’s:
- Development of patient care skills in BN & NP including, but not limited to, clinical expertise in the evaluation and treatment of individuals with focal neurobehavioral syndromes, major neuropsychiatric conditions, and neurological conditions in which cognitive, emotional, and behavioral problems arise commonly.
- Acquisition of an expert level of medical knowledge in BN & NP through extensive exposure to the core literature in neuropsychiatry, neuropsychology, and behavioral neurology, with an emphasis on the neuroanatomy and neurochemistry of cognition, emotion, and behavior.
- Development of practice-based learning and improvement through participating in a structured educational curriculum consisting of rounds, case conferences, individual supervision, didactic lectures, and other courses or seminars relevant to training in Behavioral Neurology & Neuropsychiatry, and also through guided self-directed learning that complements clinical and didactic experiences.
- Understanding of research methodology in BN & NP by involvement in faculty-guided activities including, but not limited to, clinical or basic research endeavors, the scholarship of synthesis, and/or the scholarship of educational programming.
- Development of interpersonal and communication skills, professional ethics and behaviors, and systems-based practices required to perform competently as a subspecialist in BN & NP.
All required rotations will address each of the six core competencies described by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education, including patient care, medical knowledge, practice-based learning and improvement, interpersonal and communication skills, professionalism, and systems-based practice. Each of the rotations are focused primarily on the development of patient care skills regarding the evaluation and treatment of individuals with focal neurobehavioral syndromes, major neuropsychiatric conditions, and neurological conditions in which cognitive, emotional, and behavioral problems arise commonly. During the course of these rotations, program faculty will provide the fellow with assigned readings through which the fellow will acquire an expert level of medical knowledge related to the content of each rotation.
These assignments will include textbook chapters, articles from the peer-reviewed literature, and/or guided literature searches using Medline. These assignments, typically developed as learning objectives based on clinical experiences, will serve to facilitate the fellow’s development of practice-based learning and improvement and will complement education provided through rounds, rotation-specific case conferences, and the didactic experiences in which the fellow participates. The faculty will serve as a model of and also provide supervision to the fellow regarding interpersonal and communication skills, professional ethics and behaviors, and systems-based practices.