A Letter from the Residency Director
Mark A. Granner, MD
Residency Program Director
Welcome to the web page of the Iowa Neurology Residency Program. Please browse around to learn more about us.
Our program combines the stability of one of the country's oldest neurology departments with exciting innovation and growth. Our core focus is on preparing graduates for the independent practice of Neurology through a clinical training experience that is both structured and flexible. Our residents experience the full gamut of inpatient, outpatient and consultative neurologic care at two excellent teaching hospitals, the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics and the Iowa City Veterans Affairs Medical Center. Because of the complementary nature of these two centers, our residents are exposed to a wide range of both bread-and-butter neurology and challenging referral cases. In the outpatient setting, the resident works one-on-one with an attending physician in the general or subspeciality neurology clinics. Inpatient teams consist of an attending physician, senior and junior neurology residents, rotating residents and medical students. The structure of our services is designed to foster teamwork, mentorship and individual responsibility for the care of patients.
Six months of elective time allow each resident to tailor his or her learning experience to meet individual career goals. Upon graduation, our residents matriculate with top-choice jobs and compete for highly sought-after fellowships. Our graduates are known as leaders within their group or department, and in local and national societies; many, in fact, have gone on to lead major academic departments of Neurology. While the primary focus of any residency is to produce high-level, independent clinical practitioners, our residency has a long and successful record of training academic neurologists. A recent study (Campbell PG, et al. Arch Neurol 2011) ranked the Iowa neurology residency 19th in the nation in producing current academic neurologists; the academic productivity of our graduates lead our program to rank in the top ten of those programs. We accomplish this through opportunity and mentorship throughout the residency. Whether your career goals are clinical, academic or undifferentiated, we have a strong record of training our graduates for successful careers.
The department is also undergoing an exciting period of growth, through faculty recruitment, facilities renovation, and clinical and research program development. Four new faculty members began their duties on July 1, 2011, and recruiting is advancing on many fronts, including neuromuscular, epilepsy, stroke, cognitive neurology and general neurology. A 5-year plan is in place to recruit 17 additional faculty members. A comprehensive renovation plan, currently in the planning stage with construction set to commence in 2012, will provide us with new and expanded space in which to grow clinical and research programs.
One's quality of life in residency is also impacted by factors beyond the hospital. Iowa City is, in many respects, a prototypical Midwestern university town - full of music, recreation, intercollegiate sports, the arts and fine dining. Beyond the norm, however, Iowa City is known as a town of high cultural value, with strong currents of literature, learning, friendliness and community running through it. At the end of the day a short walk, bike ride or drive home awaits, rather than a protracted urban commute.
Residency represents a time of amazing personal and professional growth, from the dependency of the medical student to the independence of the practitioner. We maintain strong ties with our graduates, and consider all our residents − present and past − members of the Iowa Neurology family. I hope you'll find that our residency is well designed to foster the knowledge, experiences and habits that lead to a full and productive life of learning, investigating and practicing Neurology. Thank you for checking us out. I hope you'll find much to like at Iowa!
Sincerely,
Mark A. Granner, MD
Professor (Clinical) of Neurology
Adjunct Professor (Clinical) of Neurosurgery
Director, Neurology Residency Program