I want to be an Epileptologist and I am doing research to further my knowledge about the career

Hey purplewings, I'm not an epileptologist, but I also have epilepsy and hope to be an epileptologist (I will be starting medical school in August 2013). I work with a lot of epileptologists in my current job and can tell you that I doubt any of them will have any time to answer your questions. Maybe some of my observations will help? I don't know how much you know about all of it so I apologize if I am telling you things you already know. 1) To be an epileptologist you go to medical school after college and taking the MCAT and then do your residency as a neurologist. Then you do a fellowship (typically 2 years) that focuses on epilepsy. Then you have to find a job, I think epileptologists are more prominent in big name hospitals in cities, but I could be wrong. 2) Not sure 3) You are never done learning as a physician so I would say yes, but I have no idea how often. And you have to retake your boards every 10 years. 4) The epileptologists in this hospital see patients every day obviously, there is epilepsy conference once a week where neurologists, radiologists, psychiatrists, etc. get together and discuss cases, lots of meetings, typically twice a year for two weeks they are the attending on call and take care of all of the patients in the hospital for surgery or surgical consideration in addition to everything they already do, they have to keep up with all of the latest research, some are MD/PhDs so they run a lab as well, and probably a million other things. 5) I imagine that my favorite part of my job will be improving people's lives. 6) If there was one thing that I could change about medicine it would be how complicated insurance can be, and how it can prevent people from getting the best treatment. Sorry if that's not very useful. Feel free to email me (should be in my profile). Best of luck!

Hi PurpleWings, The last neurologist I visited was too busy to do anything, and as with the psychiatrists I studied under in the field of mental health, his most important listed protocol was also to keep all the rooms full. Psychiatrists and neuropsychiatrists seem to pen the more mundane autobiographical day to day aspects of practices with patients than do neurologists and epileptologists. It seems I remember a neurologist's version of the different version of the book covering "The Business of Neuropsychology" (Oxford Workshop Series: American Academy of Clinical Neuropsychology) by Mark Barisa (2010), while I was looking for the base reason of the anathema towards Medicaid patients ("Cash Is King", "No margin, no mission"). The autobiographies such as the series including "The History of Neuroscience in Autobiography: Volume 7" edited by Larry R. Squire, are mostly focused on research, paths to distinct pivotal scientific events, or of different cultures and/or eras, or tidbits of exceptional experiences. One moderately priced book that is tempting me is "How Proust Can Improve Your Practice of Epileptology" by de Toffol & Genton (?) (2008): http://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ie=UTF-8&ion=1#hl=en&output=search&sclient=psy-ab&q=%22His%20thoughts%20on%20Kirilov%27s%20auras%22&oq=&gs_l=&pbx=1&fp=a0bd4b659a74c6cc&bpcl=35277026&ion=1&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_qf.&biw=1091&bih=600 http://books.google.com/books?id=1fNVzC6Dv-8C&pg=PA69&lpg=PA69&dq=%22His+thoughts+on+Kirilov's+auras%22&source=bl&ots=UzDq6jdalo&sig=jXwuI1jeuE9MOjVPK-ULrJCxjHA&hl=en&sa=X&ei=Ttx3UMq_A-P1igLG-4CICQ&ved=0CB0Q6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=%22His%20thoughts%20on%20Kirilov's%20auras%22&f=false A page with unexpected tidbits with neurologists on patients are in books like "Autobiography of a Repaired Physician: Mental Health As Seen From Both Sides" by Prospero Shimshon Shimon (2011). Most similar books have a few such. Tadzio

Sorry but this isn't the right site for such as survey. Suggest you pose the question to the American Epilepsy Society- you can contact them at www.aesnet.org Epi_help Resource Specialist