Small enough to know each resident and what they hope to build
Welcome to the Tufts Medical Center Neurology Residency Program.
What excites me most about our program is that we know our residents individually and build an exceptional neurologist with each of them. Our purpose is to help every resident pursue a career that is distinctly their own while ensuring that every graduate shares an exacting foundation in classical clinical neurology.
We welcome seven residents each year. At that scale, I can know what each resident does well, where they are struggling and what they hope to build. That knowledge shapes the feedback, mentorship, opportunities and progressively greater responsibility they receive. We set high expectations, but we do not expect residents to meet them alone. My responsibility as program director is to recognize each resident's potential, be candid about what their growth requires and make sure they have the support and opportunities to achieve it.
Our residents’ training spans four years, beginning with a preliminary year in internal medicine. We consider that year an essential part of becoming a neurologist, not an obstacle to get through before neurology begins. Neurologic patients are medical patients. The judgment residents develop while learning to care for them becomes part of the foundation they draw upon throughout their careers.
At the center of our teaching is clinical neurology: taking a history that has already narrowed the differential, examining carefully enough that the findings are worth reasoning from and localizing before naming. Modern imaging and diagnostic technology have transformed our field, but they have not replaced the neurologist's fundamental work - listening closely, examining carefully, localizing precisely and making sound decisions when the answer is uncertain and cannot wait until morning.
Residents learn this work within a community deliberately designed to support them. Every resident joins a pod at the beginning of the preliminary year. Each pod includes one resident from every year of training and a faculty mentor. From the start, a first-year resident has a faculty member and three more-senior residents looking out for them. I am proud of the culture this creates: residents are known early, supported consistently and taught to take responsibility for one another.
Neurology residency is demanding, and we believe rigor should coexist with humane, transparent scheduling. Overnight coverage in the neurology years is organized through night float, with no 24-hour shifts. The preliminary medicine year follows the internal medicine program's own schedule. Tuesday afternoons, from 1:00 pm to 5:00 pm, are protected for teaching and remain protected. These choices reflect our belief that excellent training requires both meaningful responsibility and the time and structure to learn from it.
Our more than 40 full-time faculty members across Tufts Medical Center and Lahey Clinic represent the breadth of modern neurology, including stroke, epilepsy, neurocritical care, neuro-oncology, movement disorders, neuromuscular medicine and neurophysiology. Just as importantly, they are deeply committed to teaching and mentorship. Whether a resident sees a future in academic medicine, research, education, community practice, subspecialty care or a path they have not yet discovered, we work to connect them with people and experiences that will help make that future possible.
Our investment in residents does not end at graduation. We remain mentors, colleagues, advocates and friends throughout their careers. The enduring relationships among our residents, faculty and graduates are among the things I value most about this program and among the hardest to convey on a website.
I hope you will look closely, ask our residents candid questions and imagine what you might build here. We would be genuinely excited to learn who you are, what kind of neurologist you hope to become and how we can help you get there. If you choose Tufts, you will join a community that will know you, challenge you, support you and remain invested in you long after residency.
Joshua Kornbluth, MD
Vice Chair of Education and Training, Department of Neurology
Program Director, Neurology Residency
Medical Director, Michael Neely Neurosciences Critical Care Unit
Associate Professor of Neurology and Neurosurgery, Tufts University School of Medicine
