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Message from the Program Director

Welcome to the Child Neurology Residency program at IU School of Medicine! Child Neurology at IU and Riley Hospital for Children at IU Health has trained child neurologists for 52 years, with a true legacy of training excellent clinical child neurologists. Our program began with Dr. Les Drew in the late 1960s, who along with Dr. William DeMeyer, were the roots of child neurology at IU. Dr. DeMeyer was a world-renowned anatomist whose foundational work in holoprosencephaly led him to coin the term "the face predicts the brain." In the spirit of our founders, our mission is to train the next generation of innovative, outstanding clinical child neurologists for the children of Indiana and beyond. Our primary training institution is Riley Hospital at IU Health. Riley is the oldest and largest free-standing children's hospital in Indiana. At Riley, we work to improve the health of our patients and community through innovation, excellence in care of diverse populations, education, research and service. Riley Hospital at IU Health has been recognized as a top tier children's hospital by U.S. News & World Report for many years and is Indiana's only nationally ranked children's hospital. We are the preeminent tertiary/quaternary referral hospital for pediatric patients in the state of Indiana. As an IU child neurology resident, you will care for patients with bread-and-butter pediatric and neurologic problems as well as with rare and often unique disorders. In short, you will see the horses and the zebras!

We expanded our training class in 2019.  Child Neurology Residency program now accepts two residents a year, along with two neuro-developmental disability residents each year. These four residents join the nine residents in the Adult Neurology Residency program, receiving world-class training in neurology in four downtown Indianapolis hospitals. The partnership between adult and child neurology allows for intensive educational experiences as well as unique opportunities, such as our two month neuroanatomy rotation the beginning of the second year, a precious protected time with wonderful learning. In short, our program is large enough to provide you a community while ensuring you individual attention.

Our program focuses on clinical training with a mixture of didactics and extensive clinical experience. Our residents are exposed to research and are actively involved in the education initiatives and administration of the program. Over the past 20 years our section has grown over threefold. We now house several multi-disciplinary clinical programs and are fully integrated into institution-wide programs such as Neuro NICU and formal educational programs of numerous other departments. Under the department leadership of our chair, Laurie Gutmann, MD, our department looks forward to continuing to strengthen the collaborative experiences in clinical, translational and basic science research, as well as improving clinical care. We look to the future with a focus on diversity and the desire to train child neurologists who can go anywhere in their careers.

Please take a look at our webpage and follow us on Instagram (@iu_childneuro_ndd). We look forward to working with you soon.

38024-Blake, Robert

Robert B. Blake, MD

Assistant Professor of Clinical Neurology

Child Neurology Residency Program Director

Read Bio Robert B. Blake, MD