Last night, the Neurology and Neurosurgery interest groups hosted a joint mixer for students and UCLA neurologists. The chair of the neurology department was there briefly at the beginning and seems like a person who loves his job and has personal flair (read: charisma). The two MD neurologists I talked to were both spending significant time doing research. One was an ALS specialist and the other worked on neuromuscular disease therapy. There was a third neurologist who was working part-time that I didn't get a chance to talk to before the evening was over.
The ALS specialist received her MD training in Germany and then came to the UCLA to do research. It was through that research project on ALS that she found her niche. From then out, she did a residency in neurology. Now, she sees patients about 20% of the time in her ALS clinic and does research on better understanding the range of ALS progression and on therapies to improve prognosis. The neuromuscular neurologist spent more time in the clinic. He researches the mechanisims of how Botulinum toxin improves muscular spasms at the neuromuscular junction. He considered ophthalmology and neurology residencies but settled on neurology after clinical rotations.
The tone of the group was quite different from that of the Geriatics interest group meeting. The neurologist were more hip. However, they also seemed much more stressed. I didn't find this session as helpful since these neurologists were so far removed from where I am in the process of figuring out specialization. In addition, the neurologists I talked to were both in the neuromuscular subdepartment of neurology, which gave me an idea of what that particular niche is like at UCLA but not much a big picture.
