Mark Hallett, MD, Codrin Lungu, MD
Entry Id: TP-44

Overview
The Movement Disorders Fellowship Training Program at the NIH provides clinical and research training. The expectation is that graduates will be proficient in all aspects of diagnosis and treatment of Movement Disorders and related fields. Graduates are also expected to develop the basic foundation for pursuing independent research in the field.

The available facilities for clinical training include the NIH Clinical Center's Neuroscience in-patient unit and Neurology clinic, staffed by Neuroscience nursing personnel, and available collaborations with area hospitals and facilities if wider clinical exposure is desired.

The Movement Disorders Program operates a fully equipped physiology laboratory, including a state-of-the-art TMS laboratory. In addition, the group shares the NIH core imaging facility, which is one of the most advanced in the world, including 7T and 11.2T MRI scanners as well as PET and SPECT imaging, the magnetoencephalography core and other research modalities.

Most graduates pursue successful academic careers, and many are department and division chairs throughout the world.

Structure of the Clinical Training Program
The fellowship duration is 2-5 years, flexible depending on the applicants' interests.

1. Clinical activity and training

• Weekly Movement Disorders Clinic: Exposure to a wide variety of movement disorders, including complex and unusual cases. The referral base for the NIH Movement Disorders Clinic is worldwide.
• Weekly Parkinson's Disease Clinic: provides training in all evaluation methods, including multimodal imaging and objective outcome measures, and offers exposure to all pharmacologic, surgical and ancillary treatment modalities
• Weekly Deep Brain Stimulation Management Clinic: training in DBS programming and troubleshooting, and in the combined pharmacologic and surgical management of movement disorders patients. Participation in the surgical procedure and obtaining expertise in intraoperative physiology (15-30 cases a year expected volume) is available depending on individual interest
• Monthly botulinum toxin clinic: offers a wide variety of pathology and patient populations, and has a worldwide referral base. Offers experience with all available toxin formulations for all indications, as well as the use of EMG and ultrasound guidance for therapy.
  

2. Research activity and training
The mission of the group is to understand the physiology of human voluntary movement and the pathophysiology of various movement disorders, as well as to initiate and participate in clinical and translational research. The main modalities used are:

• Imaging, using high resolution MRI, fMRI, PET, DAT SPECT, transcranial ultrasound
• Transcranial magnetic stimulation, for studies of physiology, pathology, and therapeutic applications
• EEG, MEG, surface EMG, studying localization of normal and abnormal neural function and the nature of voluntary actions
• Diagnostic and therapeutic clinical trials, including gene therapy and novel agents, performed as a single site or in collaboration
  

3. Teaching and formal instruction curriculum

• Formal coursework in clinical research, pharmacology, statistics, grant writing etc. available through the NIH, the FAES graduate school and other institutions
• Master of Health Sciences in Clinical Research degree is available
• Multiple scheduled conferences and lectures on campus or available via telecast
• Funding provided for travel to conferences and educational programs

• Mark Hallett, MD
• Codrin Lungu, MD
• Silvina Horovitz, PhD
• Kareem Zaghloul, MD PhD
• Barbara Karp, MD
• Katharine Alter, MD

Positions in the Movement Disorders Fellowship are now offered through the SF Match Program. Graduates of accredited residency programs with an interest in Movement Disorders are eligible to apply. An interest in an academic career is encouraged but not required.

For more information and to apply, contact:

Dr Mark Hallett: hallettm@ninds.nih.gov
Dr Codrin Lungu: lunguci@ninds.nih.gov

The NIH is dedicated to building a diverse community in its training and employment programs.

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