Summary of the Program

 We offer 1 or 2-year fellowship training in movement disorders for candidates who seek to become proficient movement disorders neurologists and provide exceptional care to patients and their caregivers. Fellows will receive comprehensive training in all aspects of movement disorders, including management of early and advance Parkinson’s disease, atypical parkinsonian syndromes, drug-induced parkinsonism, hyperkinetic disorders (e.g., dystonia, chorea), botulinum toxin administration, and pre-surgical evaluation and management of patients undergoing functional neurosurgery (DBS and focused ultrasound). Our program provides training in two of the region’s premier multidisciplinary clinics: the Comprehensive Multidisciplinary Normal Pressure Hydrocephalus (NPH) clinic, and the DBS and Focused Ultrasound Fast Track clinic.

The curriculum of the fellowship includes rotations through subspecialty clinics that can be tailored according to the fellow’s interests and may include exposure to cognitive neurology through the Alzheimer’s disease and memory disorders center, sleep medicine, neuro-ophthalmology, genetics, and neuropsychiatry (including management of patients with functional/psychogenic movements disorders).  Fellows receive formal didactic instruction through weekly lectures, monthly journal club, bimonthly video case conference, and the annual Aspen conference.

Additionally, the program offers opportunities in clinical research and education tracks. The fellows will be involved in teaching medical students and residents, and present cases at bimonthly video case conferences.  Depending on their interest, fellows are also expected to avail the program’s research resources to develop, execute, and publish at least one project throughout the first year of the fellowship (with additional research requirements expected for the second year).

Fellowship Director: Umer Akbar, MD

Length of training:

1-2 year (depending upon research interests and funding availability)

Prerequisites:

Successful completion of an ACGME-accredited Neurology program

Faculty: 

A list of our core faculty can be found on the (website link: https://www.lifespan.org/centers-services/movement-disorders-program-rho...).

Alumni of the Program

In 2021, Duk Soo Kim, DO was the first fellow to complete the fellowship program in Movement Disorders at Rhode Island Hospital and Alpert Medical School.