Neurosurgery Training

Program Director

James Holsapple, MD, Chief of Neurosurgery, Boston Medical Center

Site Directors

Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center
Martina Stippler, MD

Boston Children's Hospital
Mark Proctor, MD

Boston Medical Center
Urvashi Upadhyay, MD

House Officer Salary and Benefits

Resident salaries are similar for all members of the Council of Boston Teaching Hospitals; rates are adjusted annually to account for cost of living. Training conditions and work schedules follow the guidelines of the Residency Review Committee for Neurological Surgery of the Accreditation Council on Graduate Medical Education.

The program provides a wide range of benefits, including malpractice insurance coverage, on-call meals, and short- and long-term disability insurance. The program also makes available the opportunity to purchase several types of health, dental and life insurance. Each intern is allotted three weeks’ vacation; all higher level residents are allotted four vacation weeks per year. In addition, the program has a liberal leave of absence policy for residents who are new parents, require medical leave, or need to care for a seriously ill family member.

Licensure

All residents and clinical fellows appointed to the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center Neurological Surgery Residency Program must hold a current limited license or a current full license to practice medicine in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Applications for the limited license are obtained from the Surgical Education Office. Limited licenses must be renewed every year, up to a maximum of five years. The cost of a limited license is $100 annually.

Applications for full licensure should be sent directly to the Massachusetts Board of Registration in Medicine, 200 Harvard Mill Square, Suite 330, Wakefield, MA 01880. For more information, visit the Board of Registration in Medicine's website. Please contact the Board by email with questions.

Application Process and Deadline

The Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center Neurological Surgery Residency Program participates in ERAS, the Electronic Residency Application Service. The program selects interns through the National Resident Matching Program in accordance with the policies established by the NRMP.

Deadline for receipt of all application documents is November 1. All applicants are required to pass USMLE Step-2 before starting in a first-year position.

Interviews

Each application is reviewed in its entirety with an eye toward a combination of overall academic excellence, leadership ability, career development potential and personal character. Qualified individuals will be invited to interview. Interviews are held on selected days from November through the following January. No interviews are scheduled without an invitation, and no individual interviews are scheduled outside of these scheduled sessions. Any candidate who is invited to interview must contact the Surgical Education Office to confirm acceptance of the invitation.

The Department of Neurosurgery presents Neurosurgery Grand Rounds virtually the 4th Wednesday of the month from 7:30 am – 8:30 am. Please email Deidre Buckley, NP if you are interested in participating.

January 25, 2023
Susanne Muehlschlegel, MD, MPH, FNCS, FCCM, FAAN
Professor of Neurocritical Care
Director of Neurocritical Care Research
Depts. Neurology , Anesthesia/Critical Care and Surgery
Director Junior Faculty Development Program (JFDP)
Office of Faculty Affairs
University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School
“Prognostic Disclosure and Shared Decision Making in the NeuroICU”

February 22, 2023
John C. “Jay” Wellons, III, MD, MSPH
Cal Turner Chair and Chief of Pediatric Neurosurgery
Vice Chair, Department of Neurosurgery
Medical Director, Surgical Outcomes Center for Kids (SOCKs)
Vanderbilt University Medical Center/Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital
2200 Children’s Way, DOT 9222
Nashville, TN  37232-9557
"The Importance of Storytelling in Medicine"

March 22, 2023
Miki Fujimura, MD, PhD
Professor and Chairman
Department of Neurosurgery
Hokkaido University Graduate School of Medicine
Sapporo, Japan
Phone: 81-11-706-5984
Fax: 81-11-708-7737
"Surgical Management of Moyamoya Disease"

April 26, 2023
Gregory J. Zipfel, MD
Ralph G. Dacey Distinguished Professor of Neurosurgery
Chair, Department of Neurosurgery
Neurosurgeon-in-Chief, Barnes-Jewish Hospital
Washington University in St Louis School of Medicine
Title: TBA

May 24, 2023
Charles H Cook, M.D.
Associate Professor of Surgery
Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center
Surgery
Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center
Boston, MA 02215
Title: TBA

June 21, 2023
Howard Riina, MD
Lucius N. Littauer Professor of Neurosurgery, Department of Neurosurgery at NYU Grossman School of Medicine 
Professor, Department of Radiology at NYU Grossman School of Medicine 
Professor, Department of Neurology at NYU Grossman School of Medicine 
Director, NYU Langone Health Center for Stroke and Neurovascular Diseases
Associate Director, Neurosurgery Residency Program
Vice Chair for Clinical Affairs, Department of Neurosurgery
NYU Langone
Title: TBA

July 26, 2023
Casey Halpern, MD
Topic- Stereotactic/functional- TBA
Division Head, Functional and Stereotactic Neurosurgery Associate Professor of Neurosurgery
Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania

August 30, 2023
Zipfel, Gregory
Professor and Chair
Washington University, St Louis
(zipfelg@wustl.edu)
"Aneurysms, Fistulas, and the Promise of Conditioning-Based Therapy"

September 27, 2023
Guy Mckhann
CUIMC/Neurological Institute of New York
New York, NY
Title: TBA

October 25, 2023
Jeffery Bruce
Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center – Columbia/Cornell
Title: TBA

November 29, 2023
Title: TBA

December 27, 2023
NO ROUNDS - Holidays

January 31,2024
James Harrop
Jefferson
Topic - Spine
Title: TBA

For more information about the Neurosurgical Residency Program, please email Evan Phillipps, Program Coordinator.

Our Sub-Internship Program for 4th Year Medical Students

We welcome fourth-year medical students to rotate with us. Our elective rotation in Neurological Surgery at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) is affiliated with Harvard Medical School (HMS). The rotation is offered every month.

Rotation Application Process

Harvard Medical School uses the AAMC’s Visiting Student Learning Opportunities (VSLO) system for visiting student rotations. Please apply through VSLO no later than 90 days prior to your desired clerkship start date. Please note, there are multiple Neurosurgery electives listed through HMS. The BIDMC Neurosurgery rotation is elective number: SU509M.5a. View our elective rotation in VSLO.

Please send us an email to let us know you are interested in rotating with us and will be applying. We request that you send us a copy of your application to the email address below so we can help facilitate the process.

Second, if there is an issue regarding the dates of rotations not lining up with your school's calendar, please contact us.

Third, a note about immunizations, HMS and BIDMC require proof of immunity. Documentation of vaccination is not sufficient, they require positive antibody titers. Please read the instructions carefully.

The HMS Registrar will notify you of acceptance 90 days before the start of the rotation. For any additional questions regarding the application process, you may contact the HMS Registrar’s office by calling 617-432-1515 or by emailing us.