Mission

The Clinical Multiple Sclerosis Fellowship at Rhode Island Hospital and the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University was established to meet the expanding need for MS trained specialists.  The Multiple Sclerosis Center at Rhode Island Hospital offers comprehensive and multidisciplinary care to our patients, as well as cutting edge research.  Our Fellows are an important part of the team at the Center.  Our service offers an established MS clinic to patients for diagnosis and care that affords Fellows the opportunity to follow our patients, be a part of clinical research and clinical trials and learn from our faculty.

Fellowship Director: Syed Rizvi

Goal

The goal of the Multiple Sclerosis Fellowship is to train fellows from diagnostic consultation to long-term multidisciplinary care including the latest clinical trials and therapies. 

Program Overview

The Clinical Fellowship program is designed to give Fellows a thorough experience in all aspects of the care of MS patients.In addition to direct patient care within the MS Center, Fellows are required to participate in new and ongoing clinical research.  The training regimen begins with the differential diagnosis of MS and related disorders. This is followed with the classifications of Multiple Sclerosis and determination of the differing treatments.  Education in how best to interpret MRI's and other imaging modalities along with ongoing sympotomatic management are components of the training experience.  A critical aspect of Fellowship training is for Fellows to follow affiliated faculty in order to gain experience in the fields of neuro-opthalmology, neuro-radiology, rheumatology, and neuro-rehabilitation.  Once completed, our Fellows are experienced and ready to meet the challenges presented by Multiple Sclerosis.

Length of Training

1 Year

Prerequisites

Successful completion of an ACGME or AOA-accredited Neurology residency.

Training schedule

Most training takes place at Rhode Island Hospital. 

The monthly schedule includes 24 blocks per month in the MS Clinic continuously over the 12 months as follows:

  • 4 blocks per month in specialty clinic (to include neuro-ophthalmology, rheumatology, neuro-radiology and neuro-rehabilitation)
  • 8 blocks per month of dedicated research time continuously over the 12 months
  • 4 blocks per month of administrative/didactic time continuously over the 12 months
  • 4 weeks vacation

Conferences

Neurology Grand Rounds: Wednesdays at 8:00am; Weekly 
Neuroradiology Conference:  Wednesdays at 12:00 Noon; Weekly 
Fellows are required to give scheduled talks at the Noon Conferences for neurology residents and medical students in such subjects as diagnosis, management and current clinical trials in the field of Multiple Sclerosis. 

Attendance at national conferences is expected.  These conferences include:
The American Academy of Neurology Annual Meeting
The Consortium of MS Centers (CMSC) 

How to Apply

Please provide:

Letter of interest

CV

3 letters of recommendation, one of which should be a letter from your current Program Director

Requests for information and applications should be sent to:

          Syed Rizvi, MD, 

          Program Director Clinical Multiple Sclerosis Fellowship

          Rhode Island Hospital

          593 Eddy Street, APC 5th floor 
          Providence, RI 02903
          phone: (401) 444-3799
          fax: (401) 444-2838
          email: [email protected]

Core Faculty

Syed Rizvi, MD is the Director of the Rhode Island Hospital Multiple Sclerosis Center and an Associate Professor of Neurology, Clinician Educator at The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University. He is board certified in Neurology. Dr. Rizvi has participated as a Principal Investigator in numerous Multiple Sclerosis (MS) clinical trials and has published in a variety of peer-reviewed journals. He is co-editor of the book Clinical Neuroimmunology. Dr. Rizvi received his medical degree in Karachi, Pakistan, followed by a Combined Residency residency in Internal Medicine and Neurology at Stony Brook University Hospital where he was Chief Resident in Internal Medicine.  Dr. Rizvi continued at Stony Brook where he was a Clinical Fellow in Mulitple Sclerosis and Neuroimmunology.  He has served as the Director of the MS Center since 2002.

Jonathan Cahill, MD, FAAN is a board-certified neurologist at the Rhode Island Hospital Multiple Sclerosis Center. He received his medical degree from Albany Medical College and completed an internship in internal medicine and residency in neurology at Rhode Island Hospital / Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University.  In 2011, Dr. Cahill completed a Fellowship in Neuroimmunology at the University of Massachusetts and then joined the staff at the Rhode Island Hospital Multiple Sclerosis Center. He is an Associate Professor of Neurology at the Alpert Medical School, as well as the Program Director of the Neurology Residency Program.  Dr. Cahill is a member of the Board of Trustees for the Connecticut-Rhode Island Chapter of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society and the Secretary of the Rhode Island Neurological Society.

Saima Chaudhry, MD is a board-certified neurologist at the Multiple Sclerosis Center of Rhode Island and an Assistant Professor of Neurology, Clinician Educator at The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University.  She received her medical degree from The Chicago Medical School at Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science. She competed her internal medicine internship and neurology residency at Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood, Illinois, where she was a chief resident. Dr. Chaudhry completed a clinical and research fellowship in neuroimmunology and multiple sclerosis at Rhode Island Hospital and the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University.  She serves as the co-director of the third year Neurology clerkship at Brown.  Dr. Chaudhry has received a number of honors, including The Frank A. Rubino Clinical Neurology Award for excellence in patient care and education in the art and science of neurology from the Loyola Department of Neurology.

Affiliated Faculty 

Jeffrey Rogg, MD - Associate Professor of Diagnostic Imaging

Stuart Schwartz, MD - Clinical Associate Professor of Rheumatology

Geoffrey Tremont, PhD - Director of Neuropsychology

Tatiana Bakaeva, MD, PhD - Neuro-ophthalmology 

Rashmi Licht, MD - Urology