Message From the Director

Jennifer M. Bain, MD, PhD

Jennifer M. Bain, MD, PhD

Thank you for your interest in the Columbia University Irving Medical Center's Child Neurology Residency Program. With the explosion of new technologies for identifying neurological injury and dysfunction and recent advances in the scientific understanding of many neurological diseases beginning in childhood, it is an exciting time to begin a career in child neurology. Never before has there been a greater need for well trained and compassionate child neurologists.

Columbia University has been at the forefront of the specialty since the field's inception, due in large part to Dr. Sidney Carter whose long tenure at the Neurological Institute at Columbia University (1948-1978) saw the birth of child neurology as a sub-specialty of neurology, the formation of the Child Neurology Society and the implementation of a formal Child Neurology Training Program. Offering the first NIH funded training program in 1956, the inpatient service for the treatment of children with neurological disorders moved from Columbia University's Neurological Institute to Babies Hospital (now NewYork-Presbyterian Morgan-Stanley Children's Hospital) and began the long tradition of training pediatricians in the care of childhood neurological diseases. The distinguished list of former trainees includes many of the country's current leaders and innovators in the field.

It is in this great tradition that the Child Neurology Residency Program continues. Situated in the biggest and most diverse city in the United States, and partnered with the largest and most advanced pediatric and adult hospitals in New York, Columbia University Irving Medical Center offers a tremendous training environment for its residents and fellows. Beginning with a comprehensive dedicated child neurology educational curriculum, under the guidance of excellent clinicians and scientists, and in collaboration with the truly outstanding training traditions of the Departments of Neurology and Pediatrics there is no better place to learn the art and science of child neurology than at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Irving Medical Center.

NewYork-Presbyterian Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital ranks in more pediatric specialties than any other hospital in the metro New York area according to the most recent U.S. News & World Report Best Children's Hospitals rankings and is the largest family-centered children's hospital in New York. Clinical services encompass all medical and surgical specialties, including a dedicated inpatient child neurology service, a 6 bed dedicated pediatric epilepsy monitoring unit, a level IV neonatal ICU and the only dedicated Pediatric Cardiac ICU in the New York City area. Technologically sophisticated programs such as neonatology, critical care, cardiology, and genetics all provide a broad range of patients with neurological disease to which our residents are exposed during their training. The new Cohen's Pediatric Emergency Department, a state-of-the-art facility opened in 2011, is one of the busiest in the country.

NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia University Irving Medical Center, the adult inpatient facility where child neurology residents rotate for 12 months of their training, is no less distinguished. With a state of the art 18-bed Neurological Intensive Care Unit, 8 bed inpatient epilepsy monitoring unit, and a busy inpatient and consultation service, residents are exposed to the breadth and depth of neurology at all levels of training.

If you share our passion as advocates for children with neurological illness and commitment to become the next leaders in child neurology please learn more about our residency training in child neurology at CUIMC and Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital.

Jennifer M. Bain, MD, PhD
Child Neurology Residency Program Director