Westwood Pediatric EEG & Epilepsy Training Track

Lekha Rao MD is preceptor for this two-year Pediatric training track. The first year is in an accredited PGY-5 Clinical Neurophysiology position. The second year is in the accredited PGY-6 Epilepsy Training Program.

In a typical week, the fellow participates in routine daily EEG readings for inpatients and outpatients, including both adult and pediatric patients. The fellow is assigned certain primary reading days with responsibility to review EEGs and present them to a senior attending for confirmation prior to dictation. On other days, he or she attends EEG teaching sessions where another fellow is the first reader. 

The fellow participates in patient care on the UCLA Pediatric Inpatient Epilepsy Monitoring Unit. General pediatrics house officers serve as the admitting team, and they deal with general orders and care details. The Pediatric EMU patients are admitted both to Santa Monica Hospital and to Westwood RRMC. Patient care on the Epilepsy Unit may include special procedures such as grid stimulation and depth electrode recordings. Fellows care for patients in the Westwood Pediatrics Clinic one or two half-days each week. Fellows are expected to participate in research.

The fellow is on-call one week out of every three. Call is from home. This covers problems with patients on the pediatric Epilepsy Monitoring Unit as well as stat EEG requests or off-hours procedures.