Gain hands-on experience with adult and pediatric electroencephalography (EEG) and acquire a working knowledge of evoked potentials (EP), training in specialized EEG labs and a state-of-the-art long-term epilepsy monitoring unit.
Through this initial rotation, you will develop the background knowledge and bedside skills to understand and use tools for measuring and interpreting electrical activity in the brain and nervous system.
Working with our expert neurophysiologist, you will manage patients in our eight-bed Long-Term Monitoring Unit at Women and Children’s Hospital of Buffalo.
With access to our extensive neurophysiology laboratory, you will read and interpret patients’ EEGs, evoked responses and polysomnograms.
You may also choose to gain additional expertise by completing an EEG subfellowship in our long-term monitoring facility.
You will learn how and when to use electrodiagnostic tools in clinical settings, including:
You will quickly master the basics, as you observe one of our experienced technicians to learn the technical basis of EEG, such as amplifiers, montages, calibrations, filters and principles of localization. You will soon be reviewing all EEGs and writing preliminary reports.
You may further specialize, building your knowledge of evoked potentials by arranging with staff to observe the following types at the Buffalo General Medical Center:
You will learn from our specialists as you present your patients and review video-EEG materials during morning rounds.
You also will gain crucial background knowledge through our focused, seven-part EEG lecture series covering relevant topics, including montages; technical approaches to EEG; norms and variants; epileptiform activity; and encephalopathies.
You will deepen and augment your clinical knowledge as you actively participate in, and prepare to present interesting cases at our weekly child neurology conferences and our specialized epilepsy conference.
In addition, you will participate in a multidisciplinary epilepsy surgery conference centered on neurosurgical evaluation and treatment results, such as long-term monitoring, imaging and neuropsychological testing. This engaging learning experience, involving neurologists, neurosurgeons, neuropsychologists and neuroimaging specialists, takes place at Women and Children’s Hospital of Buffalo.
Working with our expert faculty and neurophysiology fellows, you will read and review about 25 EEGs per day.
During this month-long rotation, you will interpret at least 50 EEGs and one routine evoked potential of each modality performed.
You also will attend at least one surgery — including patient set up — requiring intraoperative EEG or EP monitoring.