Welcome to the University of Washington (UW) Neurology Residency Program! We are excited that you are interested in our program and the unique training it offers. With access to world-class specialty experts, diverse patient populations, and the most frequent to the rarest pathologies; we each develop our own unique passions within Neurology. Our residents come from all walks of life and consistently matriculate as confident neurologists into both competitive fellowships and general neurology positions.
Clinical Training and Career Development
Our strength comes from the diversity of clinical experiences, the depth of the expert knowledge offered by UW faculty, and engaged, responsive leadership invested in resident success.
We train in four unique hospital systems throughout Seattle, each with their own distinct aspects.
As the county hospital, and the region’s first Comprehensive Stroke Center, Harborview Medical Center (HMC) houses a multidisciplinary Neurocritical Care ICU and is the only Level 1 trauma center in Washington state. HMC is also home to our regional Level 4 Epilepsy Center, including an epilepsy monitoring unit.
The University of Washington Medical Center Montlake campus is a premier academic institution and tertiary referral center. It is a major hub for patients with cancer, advanced cardiac pathologies, transplants, and rare conditions we only see in case reports.
The Puget Sound Veterans’ Association is where we learn bread and butter neurology, and is a premier site for Parkinson’s disease and other neurodegenerative disorders.
Finally, Seattle Children’s is the best pediatric hospital in the Pacific Northwest and home to the only Level 4 Pediatric Epilepsy Center in the region. The catchment area for each of these hospitals spans the entire WWAMI region (Washington, Wyoming, Alaska, Montana and Idaho), providing a high-volume of diverse patient backgrounds.
As Neurology is mostly an outpatient specialty, it’s important to our program to offer many opportunities in general and subspecialty clinics. With an X+Y continuity clinic model, we work with patients from vastly different pathologies and backgrounds at each of our three adult sites and have guaranteed administrative time built into our schedules. Our expert faculty that supports us in clinic come from most neurological subspecialties including vascular, neuroinfectious disease, neuro-immunology, epilepsy, neuromuscular, autonomic neurology, movement disorders, neurogenetics, behavioral neurology, neuro-oncology, neurocritical care, neuropalliative care, and more. We have specialty training available at a broad array of clinics including the Multiple Sclerosis Center, Alvord Brain Tumor Center, Headache Clinic, Memory and Brain Wellness Center, Movement Disorder Clinic, Stroke Clinic, Huntington’s Clinic, and the Regional Epilepsy Clinic. Interdisciplinary conferences occur daily, including tumor board, surgical and non-surgical epilepsy conference, neuroimmunology board, and stroke conference which supplement our scheduled didactics.
With graduated responsibility and independence as we progress through our training, we become highly confident and competent neurologists ready to go into clinical practice in any setting.
Life in Seattle and the Pacific Northwest (PNW)
Living in Seattle provides the best of city life and access to top-notch nature and wilderness. There’s a neighborhood for every personality, from Capitol Hill and its vibrant nightlife to Columbia City with its diverse food and culture to Fremont and its quirks (think giant stone troll under the bridge and an annual nude bike parade). For residents with families, there are also many neighborhoods within the city that provide a laid-back suburban feel with large yards and greenery. And no matter where you go, the views of nature – whether of Mt. Rainier (aka “The Mountain”), of the Puget Sound or city lakes, or of the year-round greenery of the numerous city parks – are always superb. Seattle is called The Emerald City for a reason. (Add image 12676 here)
There’s never a shortage of things to do in the region, with hiking trails and bike paths, delicious and diverse restaurants, world-class museums and galleries, a thriving live music scene, quirky festivals, creative microbreweries, distilleries, and wineries, endless pet-friendly activities, six professional sports teams, every outdoor winter and summer sport imaginable, a strong rock climbing (indoor and outdoor) community, and your pick of cozy coffee shops (naturally). We promise that you will never be lacking in things to do or people to do them with, rain or shine.
Most Importantly, Who Are We?
Despite all the impressive positives above, the best part of our program is still the people. We are a varied, tight-knit group. Our ages range from 26 to 38. Our origin stories range from England to Mexico to China to Australia and everything in-between. We speak English, Spanish, Arabic, Hindi, French, Vietnamese, Mandarin, and Pig Latin. Some of us are in long-term partnerships and marriages, and some of us are single. We have lived prior lives in research, education, social work, real estate, the corporate grind, forever student-hood, personal training, and bio manufacturing. We have both android and apple users. Our interests are broad, as one could expect with a group this size, and include more physical events like skiing, running, hiking, dancing, and rock climbing as well as indoor activities such as arts and crafts, reading, playing instruments, culinary arts, D&D, cat-sitting, and board games. Some of our talents include performing sick skateboard tricks at the local skate park, yapping while sipping local brews, pub trivia, pop-a-shot, deep sleeping (though never through stroke alerts), clapping with one hand, and learning new languages.
Our children encompass many different species, from turtles to birds to cats to humans. In fact, in the last few years, we have produced seven new humans. We love to get together, both at work and outside of work, in groups large and small. Over the last couple of years, we have thrown Valentine’s Day parties, partaken in spooky seances, spelunked in underground caves (but no histoplasmosis here!), spent the night in a tree house, rock climbed in the Cascades, fought in a virtual zombie apocalypse, cheered for our city’s home sports teams, and more. See below for a few photos from our recent residency retreat – sailboat ride on The Sound! (Add image 14385 & 14389 here)
We are so excited to share our beautiful program with you and look forward to getting to know you throughout this application cycle!
Sincerely,
UW Neurology Chiefs (Katelynn Getchell, Jerry Yang, Taylor Floth
