History of the Department
and the Department Today
History
The Department of Neurology is one of the three oldest in the country and its residency program one of the first to be accredited in the 1920s. It was established in 1919 when Clarence Van Epps, MD became the first Professor and Department Head. Van Epps received medical degrees from the University of Iowa (1897) and University of Pennsylvania (1898) and had obtained additional training in Philadelphia and Vienna. In 1928, under Van Epps' guidance, the department moved from its original location in what is now Seashore Hall to University Hospitals.
After Van Epps' retirement in 1945, one of his trainees, Adolph Sahs, MD, was named head in 1948. More than 50 neurologists were trained under his tutelage, many going on to distinguished academic careers of their own. His personal devotion to patient care left lasting impressions on his students, and his teaching extended beyond the bedside and lecture hall to include co-authorship of the classic neurology textbook of the era, Grinker's Neurology.
Sahs gained international recognition as an expert in cerebrovascular disease. Clinical research related to intracranial aneurysms was given special emphasis, and Sahs organized one of the first multi-center NIH clinical trials in this area of investigation.
Sahs, along with A.B. Baker, Francis Forster and Russell DeJong, the group known as "the four horsemen of neurology," helped to establish the American Academy of Neurology, of which Sahs served as president in 1961. He also served as president of both the American Neurological Association (1967-1968) and the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology (1967).
During Sahs' tenure, Maurice Van Allen, MD, and Arthur Benton, PhD, established the Neurosensory Center, which became an important stimulus for future endeavors in neurological research.
At Sahs' retirement in 1974, Van Allen became the third head of the department, bringing his unique clinical insights from both neurosurgery and neurology. The department grew rapidly under Van Allen, and several pre-eminent physicians and researchers were attracted to the department, including Antonio R. Damasio, MD, PhD. Upon Van Allen's retirement in 1985, Robert Rodnitzky, MD, served as acting chief of the department. Then, in 1986 Antonio R. Damasio, MD was appointed as the department's fourth head, serving in that position until 2005. During that time, Damasio further advanced the department in many ways, including developing it into one of the leading centers in the world for cognitive neuroscience, behavioral neurology and clinical neuropsychology.
A tradition of excellence in research, teaching, and clinical care was continued when Rodnitzky became the department's fifth head in 2005. He provided strong leadership by setting an example with his excellence in clinical care, while maintaining a national profile as a leader in movement disorders.
In 2010, George Richerson was recruited to be the department's sixth head. A former alumnus of the University of Iowa MD/PhD program, he had spent the previous 23 years at Yale University, where he was Professor and Director of the Neurology Residency Program, and had been Acting Chairman of the Department of Neurology. With his arrival came the first endowed chair in the history of the department, and a major expansion of the department's faculty. Along with an increase in basic science laboratory space and newly renovated clinics and offices, his appointment was also associated with development of new clinical programs in a number of subspecialties.
The Department Today
It is an exciting time for the Department of Neurology as it expands in size and depth. The department has an established tradition of excellence in clinical training, enhanced by active research programs that operate both within the department and the university-wide Interdisciplinary Graduate Program in Neuroscience. The Department of Neurology is a major participant in the latter program, for which it provides a large component of teaching and fosters communication between basic and clinical neurosciences.
For the past decade, the department has flourished on all fronts. Patients with a broad spectrum of neurological disorders are now cared for by subspecialists in Headache and Pain Management, Neuromuscular Diseases, Movement Disorders, Stroke, Dementia, Epilepsy, Sleep, Clinical Neurophysiology, Neurogenetics, Neuro-ergonomics, Autonomic Disorders, Neuropsychology, Neuro-ophthalmology, Pediatric Neurology, and Neurorehabilitation. State-of-the-art inpatient monitoring units for epilepsy and sleep disorders have been developed. The Neurology Outpatient Clinic is now being redesigned to enhance patient comfort. A multi-disciplinary approach will be used to allow patients to be seen by more than one specialist, and receive most or all of their diagnostic tests in a single clinic visit. The mechanics of scheduling have been modified to further improve patient satisfaction, and continuous attention is devoted to improvement in electronic medical records.
In addition to weekly conferences and seminars held by the faculty and by many regular academic visitors, the department holds a number of additional teaching events. These include four named lectureships, The Maurice W. Van Allen Lecture in Neurology, The Ojemann Lecture in Neuroscience, the Sahs Lecture, and The Benton Lecture in Neuropsychology, each of which bring distinguished speakers to the department every year. Another program, in cooperation with the Iowa Midwest Neurological Association, hosts visiting academic neurologists who deliver lectures and hold clinical rounds throughout the year.
The department's basic neuroscience laboratories are supported by a large number of federal grants and grants from private foundations. The work performed within these laboratories is highly regarded nationally and internationally. It ranges in topic across all levels of neural organization, from molecular neurobiology to the neurobiology of large-scale neural and cognitive systems.
The department has always attracted faculty and staff with diverse interests, training, and cultural backgrounds from major research universities in the nation and from many leading institutions in Europe and Asia. The department's group of 30 senior neurologists and over 25 neurologists-in-training represent virtually all areas of expertise in the clinical neurosciences, and many are members of peer review boards at the National Institutes of Health, private foundation boards, and editorial boards of major journals.
Over the coming years the traditions of the department will be maintained, at the same time that new areas of expertise are developed. New faculty will be recruited into the areas of epilepsy, dementia, stroke and basic neuroscience, and with these new faculty will come new opportunities for research and training. It is truly an exciting time for the department, and its members, alumni, and patients.