Overview

The Clinical Center for Movement Disorders at UT Southwestern Medical Center offers a two-year, comprehensive fellowship during which fellows have an opportunity to train with seven fellowship-trained movement disorders specialists, a fellowship-trained pediatric movement disorders specialist, and adjunct faculty including neurosurgeons, deep brain stimulation (DBS) coordinators, behavioral neurologists, psychiatrists, psychologists, physical medicine and rehabilitation physicians, geneticists, and autonomic disorders specialists.

Clinical Training

Fellow are involved with the diagnosis and management of a wide spectrum of movement disorders including Parkinson's disease, essential tremor, atypical Parkinsonian syndromes, secondary movement disorders, dystonia, ataxias, chorea, tic disorders, gait disorders, pediatric movement disorders, and funtional neurological disorders.

Fellows see patients in the following settings:

• Movement disorders clinic in the faculty practice at James W. Aston Ambulatory Care Center
• Movement disorders clinic in the General Neurology Resident clinic at the Ron J. Anderson, M.D. Clinic, where the fellow will get hands-on training in EMG-guided botulinum toxin treatment of hyperkinetic movement disorders and spasticity under faculty supervision
• Neurotherapeutic interventions for movement disorders at the Ron J. Anderson, M.D. Clinic
• Movement disorders consults at Parkland Hospital and William P. Clements Jr. University Hospital

Fellows have an active role in all aspects of the neuromodulation program, including:

• Performing evaluations for patients considering surgery for movement disorders
• Presenting cases at the interdisciplinary meetings
• Programming DBS devices and assessing outcomes
• Accessing patients for DUOPA infusion therapy
• Accessing potential candidates for focused ultrasound therapy

Didactic Curriculum

Fellows have an opportunity to attend the Aspen Course on movement disorders in July with course directors Cynthia Comella, M.D., (Rush University Medical Center) and Michael S. Okun, M.D., (University of Florida College of Medicine). In addition, fellows may get an opportunity to attend the annual movement disorders congress if they present a poster or give a talk.

Fellows attend at least one DBS educational program during the year of training, and UTSW supports fellows attending the International Parkinson and Movement Disorder Society (MDS) DBS course.

Fellowship didactic curriculum includes:

• Regularly scheduled video rounds that afford recognition of complex phenomenology of movements and their management, journal clubs, and case presentations
• Monthly journal club for Neurology residents/movement fellows to present articles, learn the research and clinical thought process of others, and determine if conclusions are valid and can be supported in practice
• Monthly neuromodulation conference, including presentations of challenging cases related to DBS, DUOPA or high frequency ultrasound (Hi-Fu)
• Monthly functional neurological disorders interest group that discusses challenging patients with functional neurological disorders, program development, and reviews the latest literature

Our fellowship director created and co-leads a weekly, national movement disorders curriculum on the Zoom platform. Our movement disorders program and faculty are involved with various patient support groups and conduct educational symposia throughout the year. Fellows can attend and present at these meetings.

Research

Fellows participate in a variety of ongoing clinical research projects. Fellows can attend and traditionally present abstracts at national and international meetings including American Academy of Neurology (AAN), American Neurological Association (ANA), and MDS. In the two-year program, fellows may traverse a detailed didactic curriculum for research, including courses at the institutional level with the center for translational studies. Fellows also learn about writing grants, reviewing manuscripts, becoming expert reviewers, giving scientific presentations, and designing viable research projects.

Application Process and Match

The application and selection process for the Movement Disorders Fellowship Program is via the San Francisco Match, which opens for applications March/April of the PGY-3 (one year prior to starting the fellowship) with a match in mid-September.