The Mass General Brigham (MGB) Movement Disorders Fellowship is a 2-year program that combines two major tertiary care hospitals: Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH). Together, the two hospitals comprise one of the largest movement disorders clinical and research programs in the world. The hospitals have a total of 1800 inpatient beds and 1.5 million outpatient visits per year. They serve the diverse population of the greater Boston area as well as unique cases from across the U.S.A. and the world. Both hospitals are affiliated with Harvard Medical School.
Over 30 faculty members with diverse interests contribute to the MGB movement fellowship. Physician-scientists in the program conduct active research in Parkinson’s disease, atypical parkinsonian disorders such as progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP) and multiple system atrophy (MSA), genetic forms of dystonia, neurodegenerative and genetic forms of ataxia, deep brain stimulation (DBS), dementia with Lewy Bodies, sleep-related movement disorders, autonomic disorders, Huntington disease, hereditary spastic paraplegia, Tourette syndrome, pediatric movement disorders, and neurogenetics.
BWH and MGH house, among other neurology resources, an APDA-CAR American Parkinson’s Disease Association Center for Advanced Research, the Center for Brain Circuit Therapeutics, the Collaborative Center for X-Linked Dystonia-Parkinsonism, a CurePSP Center of Care, a Lewy Body Dementia Association Research Center of Excellence, an MSA Coalition Center of Excellence, the Harvard Biomarker Study, the MIND Tissue Bank, the MyTrial precision medicine clinical trial incubator, the NeuroNEXT Network for Excellence in Neuroscience Clinical Trials, and a Parkinson’s Foundation Center of Excellence,
Because of the breadth of resources and opportunities available, we can flexibly accommodate each fellow’s interests. Most applicants fit well within three main training tracks.
The Research Track (10-20% clinical time) focuses on a dedicated project mentored by a faculty member, Harvard affiliate or a non-medical Boston institution (e.g. MIT, Broad Institute). Research fellows typically spend one half-day per week seeing movement disorder patients in the clinical setting. Funding for the research training track usually comes from training grants, or from the laboratory supervising the fellow’ work. Prior fellows have a strong track record in securing funding from the NIH (R25 and K08 awards), Burroughs-Wellcome, the AAN, the APDA, the Parkinson’s Foundation, the Mission MSA, Cure PSP, and the Michael J. Fox Foundation (Edmond J. Safra Foundation Fellowship in Movement Disorders). We would encourage research track applicants to reach out early to specific labs heads to discuss research opportunities, before submitting an application.
The Clinical Track (60-100% clinical time) is structured to expose fellows to a wide variety of clinical experiences but does allow for protected time to pursue specific research or academic projects (see curriculum below) . Since 2024, the Departments of Neurology have fully committed funding for the clinical track.
The Clinical Research Track (30-40% clinical time) focuses on clinical research and will include clinical trial design, implementation, and analysis, biomarker studies, and genetic research. Fellows will have hands-on experience in multicenter clinical trials. Some clinical research fellows have completed the Clinical Effectiveness program at the Harvard School of Public Health. Departmental support is available to undertake Master’s in Public Health programs at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health for junior faculty at MGB who have pursued this track in fellowship. Funding for the clinical research track comes from NIH funding for multi-center clinical trials, from NIH, industry and philanthropic support to the MyTrial program and Harvard Biomarkers Study.
The MGB program combines two major tertiary care hospitals –BWH and MGH. Some fellows also rotate through affiliated hospitals including McLean Psychiatric Hospital, Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital, and Boston Children’s Hospital. Clinical track fellows have the opportunity to establish a continuity clinic at our affiliated South Shore Hospital, a busy community hospital with a high volume of movement disorders. All fellows see patients under direct supervision by MGH and BWH faculty. All clinicians who precept the fellows’ movement clinics are Harvard Medical School faculty. I
In addition to their own general movement clinics, fellows develop a personalized schedule that includes rotation through movement subspecialty clinics. These include ataxia, botulinum toxin, deep brain stimulation, dystonia, hereditary spastic paraparesis, Huntington’s disease, memory disorders such as dementia with Lewy Bodies, multiple system atrophy, neuropsychiatry, pediatric movement disorders, and Tourette Syndrome.
Fellows have the opportunity to learn all major neurotherapy techniques relevant to movement disorders. Botulinum toxin injection will include electromyography guidance techniques. Fellows will learn management of patients with Duopa Intestinal Infusion systems, including programming of the pumps and appropriate candidacy. Fellows can also evaluate and manage patients undergoing focused ultrasound ablation (FUSA). The fellow will learn deep brain stimulation programming in both MGH and BWH DBS clinics, and in biweekly DBS conference meetings. Fellows present candidates for DBS implantation and manage patients’ postoperative medication adjustments and DBS programming.
Regardless of their track, all fellows have an assigned mentor, and participate in weekly movement disorders seminars alternating between MGH and BWH. Scheduled lectures cover current relevant research involving local and/or invited external speakers, clinical lectures, journal club, and video rounds A formal monthly movement disorders video rounds (MOVRS) is led by Dr Changizi. Fellows start clinical training with the nationally attended Aspen Movement Disorders summer course. Many attend programs at the Harvard School of Public Health and Harvard Medical School.
MGB is committed to diversity, and movement disorders faculty are directly involved, including Nicte Mejia Gonzalez, Chair of the Neurology Diversity Committee and part of the MGH Executive Committee of Community Health, and Craig Blackstone, whose innovative programs received the NINDS Director’s Diversity Achievement Award in 2018. He was the physician-scientist member of the Training and Diversity Task Force of the NINDS 2021-2026 Strategic Plan Process. Dr. Khurana at BWH works with the Shiprock Northern Navajo Medical Center in clinical management of parkinsonism cases with plans to establish a PD clinic there, increase outreach to under-served communities and obtain more diverse research samples. MGH’s Community Access, Recruitment and Engagement (CARE) Center is coordinating the MJFF-funded study, Fostering Inclusivity in Research Engagement for Underrepresented Populations in Parkinson’s Disease (FIRE-UP PD). The FIRE-UP PD II study is led by MGH doctors Angie Viviana Sanchez and Jonathan David Jackson.
Our fellowship has turned out more than 30 clinician-researchers over the past three decades. 90% are active in academic neurology, with a focus on PD and movement disorders. They include 3 department chairs, 5 division chiefs, more than 20 professors and associate professors on three continents, and an NIH Senior Investigator and Section Chief. Graduates include prominent clinician-investigators such as David Standaert, Professor and Chair of Neurology at UAB; Dimitri Krainc, President of the ANA and Chair of Neurology at Northwestern; Joseph Ghika, Professor at the U. Lausanne; Michael Schwarzschild, Professor at Harvard; David Simon, Professor at Harvard; Michael Schlossmacher, Professor at U. of Ottawa; and Alberto Lleo, Professor at San’t Pau Barcelona.
2024-2026 Franziska Hoche (clinical research)
Program Director : Alice Flaherty, MD, PhD
Program Co-Director: Barbara Kelly Changizi, MD
Massachusetts General Hospital: Craig Blackstone MD, PhD
Brigham and Women’s Hospital: Vikram Khurana, MD, PhD
The MGB Movement Disorders Fellowship accepts applicants through the SFMatch program.
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