Cleveland Clinic London Announces Collaboration with Queen Square Institute of Neurology, University College London to Develop Next Generation of Neurologists

LONDON: Cleveland Clinic London and University College London Queen Square Institute of Neurology (IoN) have announced a unique fellowship programme to develop the next generation of neurologists and neurosurgeons.

Fellows will be employed by Cleveland Clinic and will register part-time at UCL on either an M.D. or Ph.D. three-to-four year programme. Research projects will be supervised by IoN, and there will be opportunities for collaboration with Cleveland Clinic’s Lerner Research Institute in the United States. The fellowship posts will start in August 2021 or February 2022.

The clinical component of the programme will be based at Cleveland Clinic London hospital, which opens at 33 Grosvenor Place, Belgravia, in early 2022. The hospital will have 184 inpatient beds, eight operating rooms, a full imaging suite, endoscopy and catheterisation labs, and day-case rooms for surgery.

A comprehensive neuroscience service will include a dedicated neurosurgical theatre with iMRI, and a 42-bed neuro-rehabilitation ward – one of the biggest in U.K. private healthcare. The neuro-rehab ward will offer consultant-led rehabilitation for patients with complex needs and a wide range of neurological disorders including stroke, traumatic brain injury and spinal injury. There will be dedicated video telemetry beds for sleep and complex epilepsy.

Teaching and training for undergraduate medical students and postgraduate fellows will be embedded within the programme. The fellows will support these neuroscience services.

“We are excited to bring together Cleveland Clinic’s long-standing reputation for excellence in research and education, with the U.K.’s leading neuroscience research institute,” said Tommaso Falcone M.D., Chief of Staff, Chief Academic Officer and medical director at Cleveland Clinic London.

“Working with IoN means we can offer a truly exceptional fellowship programme that is backed by our Lerner Research Institute in Cleveland. Our London fellows will be joining forces with the Lerner Institute’s department of neurosciences to better understand the mechanisms of brain development and function, the causes of neurodegenerative diseases, and developing new therapeutic strategies.”

“I am delighted to strongly support this new and innovative training and research collaboration,” said professor Michael Hanna, M.D., neurologist and director of the UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology.

“The new fellows will have a range of potential M.D./Ph.D. research project options and will be supervised by world-leading principal investigators drawn from our vibrant basic and clinical neuroscience community at the Institute of Neurology. The research programme will be complemented by excellent clinical neuroscience experience at Cleveland Clinic London to produce the neurological and neurosurgical clinician-scientist leaders of the future.”

Education is integral to Cleveland Clinic’s vision, and the Education Institute in Cleveland has been a vital component of Cleveland Clinic since its founding in 1921. The institute oversees world-class training programmes for doctors, nurses, medical students, residents and fellows, along with allied health professionals. In addition, Cleveland Clinic’s Center for Continuing Education provides a host of events, digital tools and journal activity to improve patient care through medical education.

IoN’s academic mission is to provide the best quality learning experience for undergraduates, postgraduates and doctoral students who want to pursue a career in neuroscience. With its concentration of clinical and applied scientific activity, the institute is a unique national resource for postgraduate training and research in neurology, its associated disciplines and the basic neurosciences.