Neuro vs Child Neuro

[Hkhan]

Why are neurology and child neurology residencies separate?

I understand children's brains are developing and all that stuff (or maybe I don't lol) but shouldn't child neurological care be a fellowship following general neuro residency or is there just so little overlap that this is not possible?

The reason I'm asking this is because I was looking at Charting the Outcomes and saw child neuro as a whole different sector from neurology (different step scores, research experiences, etc.) and was confused by this because so many other fields have peds fellowships and not whole residencies.

Also, if there are childcare fellowships for general neuro residency graduates as a side note, why would one do a child neuro residency (meaning they could only treat children) when general neurologists w/ a peds fellowship could treat adults and children (they would probably want to treat only children because they went to the trouble of doing the fellowship, but why limit yourself early)?


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[mvenus929]

Children are not little adults. Caring for them is a whole different skill set compared to taking care of adults.

As to the logistics of the programs, I have no idea.

 

[Ismet]

Moving to hSDN.

Peds Neuro is a whole different animal from Adult Neuro.

There are 2 ways to get to Child Neuro. The main way is by doing a categorical Child Neurology residency which includes a couple years of general pediatric training, some adult neurology training, and specific pediatric neurology training. There are also some programs that will accept people who have done a general pediatric residency for a Child Neurology fellowship.

As far as I know, someone who completes a neurology residency cannot go on to a child neurology fellowship. This is because Pediatric Neurologists are board certified in both pediatrics and neurology. Someone who just does a neurology residency would need to also do the required years of general pediatric training in order to be board-eligible for pediatrics.

Side note, it's cool that you're interested in this stuff and looking ahead, but these details are a little too nitty gritty for a high school sophomore...

 

[mmmcdowe]

Pediatric neurology tests to have a very separate set of diseases and management strategies as well. Lots of congenital disease, epilepsy, neuromuscular disease, etc. Truthfully many didn't make it to adulthood in the past so general neurologists haven't typically had the same depth of experience with these issues, which probably helped in the development of a unique training pathway.

 

[Hkhan]

Moving to hSDN.

Peds Neuro is a whole different animal from Adult Neuro.

There are 2 ways to get to Child Neuro. The main way is by doing a categorical Child Neurology residency which includes a couple years of general pediatric training, some adult neurology training, and specific pediatric neurology training. There are also some programs that will accept people who have done a general pediatric residency for a Child Neurology fellowship.

As far as I know, someone who completes a neurology residency cannot go on to a child neurology fellowship. This is because Pediatric Neurologists are board certified in both pediatrics and neurology. Someone who just does a neurology residency would need to also do the required years of general pediatric training in order to be board-eligible for pediatrics.

Side note, it's cool that you're interested in this stuff and looking ahead, but these details are a little too nitty gritty for a high school sophomore...

Why hSDN- pre med or even med school is a very applicable forum for this question... just because I'm in high school dosen't immediately mean this has to go to hSDN and most likely die because no one replies on there (as you probably know...).

 

[Ismet]

Why hSDN- pre med or even med school is a very applicable forum for this question... just because I'm in high school dosen't immediately mean this has to go to hSDN and most likely die because no one replies on there (as you probably know...).

Our policy is to move threads by high schoolers to hSDN. There are pre-meds, med students, residents, and attendings who answer questions in hSDN, as you can see occurred above.

 

[Hkhan]

Our policy is to move threads by high schoolers to hSDN. There are pre-meds, med students, residents, and attendings who answer questions in hSDN, as you can see occurred above.

If it's the policy ok, but look at the stark difference in followers between the two forums.
But again if this is a forum-wide policy, I have no problem with you following the rules.


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[OddNath]

I have completed child neurology residency, so I guess I can comment on this. The easy way to think of this is, your intern year is to teach you the general medical fundamentals of the adult vs. pediatric population. So, think backwards- at the end of child neurology residency, I was running the inpatient neurology service in a children's hospital, and we needed to be able to manage the patients' general medical issues in relation to their neurological problems. So, to prepare for that, you do an intern year in pediatrics, rather than [adult] internal medicine.

There is a 2nd year of pediatrics, which honestly is not entirely necessary, but that's how it's currently set up.

The third year is adult neurology, which is critical. Then, years 4 and 5 are child neurology.

Adult neurology is one year of internal medicine (which is just adult medicine...I say this b/c I didn't know what that meant in high school), followed by 3 years of adult neurology. They have to do at least 3 months of child neurology in that time.

I think there does exist a pathway, where you can do adult neurology, then do a 2-year fellowship in child neurology.

Anyhow, the other posters are correct, in noting that "children are not just little adults"- the physiology for just about every organ system has differences, and the plastic, developing brain is a totally different ball game from your standard 80 year old stroke patient.

Anyhow, I literally did not know that child neurology existed until medical school. Use high school as a time to become a well-rounded person and learn about yourself to choose your college major wisely.

 

[jusmle]

thanks for all these input. i am an IMG(international medical graduate) working in the U.S. and preparing for the board exam. My expertise and clinical practice in my home country is adult neurology . When coming to the path to USMLE and residecy program selection, i found out from prior match data that pediatric/neurology is more friendly to IMG candidates. i love kids as i have my own kid as well. the child neurology is fitting my expertise and personal interest.

working with child patients, you need have good knowledge of biochemistry, metabolism, brain development,ect , this does scare me as i am not good at biochemistry since medical school.

also the difference between these two, is the enrolled program number. adult neurology residency program number size is about 2 times of Peds Neuro program. and Peds Neuro residency usually takes 5 years combined training,but you will earn two board-certified licenses in both Peds and Nuerology, so it's fair !