UC Davis Health
Department of Neurology

Epilepsy Fellowship | Academic Programs and Training

Academic Programs

Epilepsy Fellowship

Become an expert epileptologist confident in providing top-quality patient care while contributing to research and education.

Epilepsy fellow working with faculty

The mission of our training program is to foster expert epileptologists of the future, who will provide the highest-quality patient care for a diverse population and make significant contributions to the field of epilepsy as clinicians, educators and researchers.

We are a National Association of Epilepsy Center (NAEC) level 4 comprehensive adult and pediatric epilepsy program and serve patients not only across Northern and Central California but also Nevada and southern borders of Oregon.

Our fellows gain expert experience in adult and pediatric scalp EEG interpretation (routine and ambulatory) with video, EEG interpretation for patients admitted to the Epilepsy Monitoring Unit (EMU), ICU EEG, presurgical phase 1 evaluations in the EMU, phase 2 intracranial EEG (stereotactic EEG and grids/strips/depth electrodes), neonatal EEG, electrocorticography, and functional cortical stimulation mapping. Trainees also work with each faulty member during outpatient clinic rotations and have an opportunity to participate in our Joint Family Planning clinic for women with epilepsy clinic that is run jointly along with OB-GYN, pediatric epilepsy clinic, and responsive nerve stimulation (RNS) clinics. Fellows will also get experience programming vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) and deep brain stimulation (DBS) devices during outpatient rotations. We are proud of our diverse faculty with a wide variety of training backgrounds which creates for a wholesome learning experience for our trainees.

During the first few weeks of fellowship, our fellows go through an educational bootcamp and receive 1:1 teaching from faculty to help lay a strong foundation. Over the course of the year, there are weekly didactics and monthly journal clubs ensuring year-round learning. Our fellows also work closely with our neurology residents and have ample teaching opportunities. Our faculty members actively participate in research, clinical trials, and QI projects. Trainees are encouraged to work on scholarly projects and to attend national epilepsy and neurology meetings.

We are committed to preparing our fellows to provide the highest quality of care for patients with complex epilepsies in any clinical setting, academic, or community-based practice. We look forward to hearing from you.

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    Fellowship Program Director

    Kiran Kanth, M.D.

    Associate Professor, Department of Neurology

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    Fellowship Assistant Program Director

    Jeffrey Kennedy, M.D.

    Professor, Department of Neurology

Fellows receive extensive and rich educational opportunities in the following:

  • Interpretation of scalp EEGs in the various settings- routine outpatient, ambulatory, inpatient, critical care, presurgical monitoring evaluations.
  • Medical management of epilepsy patients in inpatient and outpatient settings
  • Presurgical evaluations – utilizing various investigations like PET, ictal SPECT, Wada, MRI, fMRI.
  • Surgical Epilepsy Multidisciplinary Case Conference
  • Interpreting stereotactic EEG and intracranial subdural grids, strips, and depth electrodes
  • Intraoperative brain mapping
  • Specialty clinics: Pediatric epilepsy, Joint Family Planning Clinic for women with epilepsy, RNS and DBS.
  • Neuromodulation devices – VNS, RNS and DBS
  • Interpretation of evoked potentials

Program curriculum:

The fellows rotate weekly through:

  • Inpatient adult continuous EEG
  • Inpatient adult Epilepsy Monitoring Unit
  • Pediatric EEG (outpatient EEG, ontinuous ICU EEG, and EMU)
  • Outpatient adult and pediatric clinic in the mornings and Outpatient adult EEG in the afternoons
  • Elective: There are 4-8 weeks of elective time, where a fellow can choose to rotate through our sleep medicine clinic/lab, movement disorders, radiology, EMG lab, neuropsychology, or work on a scholarly activity.
  • Home call is significantly limited prior to fellows taking Neurology Boards to ensure adequate time to study. Home call is introduced as ‘buddy call’ with increased autonomy pending progress in comfort and competency. Faculty supervision is ALWAYS present. Cumulative call averages one weekend per month and two nights per month when on adult EMU, with the other nights covered by faculty. Post-call days are included to ensure adequate rest and recovery after a weekend call.
  • Second-year Epilepsy fellows will focus on surgical epilepsy work up and management and honing intracranial EEG reading skills.

The fellows are given time off to enable them to attend at least one national level educational conference per year of fellowship.

Didactics: Weekly didactics are held on an epilepsy topic. Journal Club is held monthly. Interesting EEG conference is held twice per month.

The fellow will gain knowledge of the basic principles of evidence-based medicine and research or in basic science research by participating in faculty research projects. Ongoing studies in clinical epileptology under the guidance of any of our adult or pediatric epileptologists, include research aimed at defining mechanisms underlying sudden unexpected death in epilepsy (Masud Seyal, M.D.), cognitive epilepsy research (Jack Lin, M.D.), single cell intracranial EEG research (Nigel Pedersen, M.D.), neurocysticercosis research (Samantha Allen, M.D.), cortico-cortical evoked potentials (Sheela Toprani, M.D.), intracranial or ICU EEG research (Doctors Asmar, Kennedy, Agrawal) and clinical studies involving novel antiseizure agents (Doctors Asmar, Kennedy, Bauman, Agrawal, and Kanth). The fellow will learn to explain ongoing clinical research projects to patients before consent for a particular study is obtained.

The fellowship program is directed by Kiran Kanth, M.D. , and Associate Program Director, Jeffrey Kennedy, M.D. The UC Davis Comprehensive Epilepsy Program is designated as a Level 4 Center by the National Association of Epilepsy Centers.

Faculty Resources

In addition to Kiran Kanth, M.D. and Jeffrey Kennedy, M.D., other faculty from several disciplines will participate in the educational opportunities presented by this fellowship. Those with specific expertise in epileptology include:

We are fortunate to have access and opportunities to learn from various other experts within the field of neurology, psychology, neuroradiology and neurosurgery.

We offer two 1-year Epilepsy fellowships which are accredited by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME).

We gladly accept applicants pursuing two years of EEG and Epilepsy fellowship. For 2-year applicants, we have the fellow complete one year of Clinical Neurophysiology EEG track and one year of Epilepsy fellowship to provide the two years of experience needed, both of which we offer. Both fellowships are ACGME accredited, allowing the fellow to be board eligible in Epilepsy and Clinical Neurophysiology. We recommend two years of EEG training for any person interested in surgical epilepsy, academic epilepsy, or for those who wish to be experts in the realm of treating epilepsy and seizures.

Qualified candidates should hold an M.D. or D.O. degree from an accredited institution, will have completed a residency in Neurology, and must possess a license from the Medical Board of California or apply for one at least 4 months in advance. Foreign medical graduates will be considered if they have completed a U.S.-based residency program.

To Apply

We participate in the Match. ERAS is used for the Specialties Matching Service (Fellowships). Please submit applications through the Electronic Residency Application Services (ERAS). The National Residency Matching Program (NRMP) is used for ranking and matching. Interviews will be conducted through the months of December through March using Thalamus. If interested in applying to two years of fellowship, please let the program director or program coordinator know. We recommend ranking both the Epilepsy and Clinical Neurophysiology fellowship to ensure a higher likelihood of matching with our program.

Please note, we have a Clinical Neurophysiology fellowship position open for 2026-2027. This may serve as the first year or second year of 2-year fellowship training in EEG and Epilepsy. To apply for this opening, please complete this online Fellowship Application, and submit three letters of recommendation, Curriculum Vitae, and Letter of Intent to the Fellowship Coordinator.