Training Sites

Yale New Haven Hospital (YNHH) has been the primary teaching hospital for the Yale School of Medicine since the hospital was incorporated in 1826. YNHH is now a 1,541-bed facility, making it one of the largest hospitals in the United States. There are more than 90 training programs and hundreds of residents and fellows.

Yale New Haven Health System includes hospitals throughout Connecticut, of which Yale New Haven Hospital is the largest. The system has more than 2,600 beds, more than 29,000 employees, and more than 7,500 medical staff. Moreover, it has had more than 150,000 inpatient discharges in Fiscal Year 2021.

While YNHH is a major tertiary research hospital that cares for patients referred from thoughotu the region, it also functions as a community hospital for the city of New Haven. Approximately 42% of the patients discharged reside in New Haven, and the majority of New Haven residents who are hospitalized receive their ongoing care at YNHH.

This means that neurology residents can get the “best of both worlds” when training at YNHH. Our residents care for patients with complex conditions, referred from all over the state and beyond, but we are also the first point of contact for patients from the local community who present for the first time with a neurological problem. Thus, our trainees have the opportunity to develop excellent core diagnostic and treatment skills while also staying on the cutting edge of advances in neurology.

The West Haven VA Medical Center is a 259 bed acute care facility with an active outpatient clinic. The VAMC is located 5 miles from Yale and is connected by a shuttle bus system. Residents now spend most of their time during their VA rotations focusing on the many neurological disorders that present in an outpatient setting, and less of their time caring for patients on the inpatient ward service.

In addition to its clinical services, the West Haven VA research program is among the largest and most active in the VA system. In 1996 the West Haven VA program ranked 2nd in the number of investigators, 2nd in VA research funding, and 1st in total research funds. There are major research programs in cardiology, pulmonary, renal, and digestive diseases; endocrinology, dermatology, neurology, and psychiatry. Thirty-seven research programs occupy 10 buildings on the VA campus.

The West Haven VA Medical Center is respected for one of the best neurology units in the VA system. Yale faculty serve as attendings and provide state-of-the-art supervision for housestaff. Here, residents admit and follow patients who often have "classical" neurological problems such as multiple sclerosis, Parkinson's disease, dementia, and stroke. The WHVAMC stroke program served as the prototype special care unit for the entire VA system, and has also served as the coordinating center for major clinical trials in stroke prevention for patients with atrial fibrillation and left ventricular hypertrophy.

Opportunities exist for the residents to become involved in ongoing research projects as time and interest are presented. The recently established VA Neurosciences Research Center, which is an integral part of the Department of Neurology, houses a major research program which focuses on cellular and molecular mechanisms in neurological disease, and on neural regeneration.

The outpatient clinic at the VA is a newly renovated, spacious clinic, where residents have continuity clinic twice during their clinic week, and also seen patients in the neurological subspecialty clinics under the supervision of subspecialty-trained attendings. The WHVA outpatient neurology clinic provides a robust variety of subspecialty neurologic care including epilepsy, movement disorders, neuromuscular, sleep, headache, neuro-behavioral, neurocognitive, stroke and MS.Residents now spend the majority of their time during their VA rotations focusing their education on the many neurological disorders that present in an outpatient setting, and less of their time caring for patients on the inpatient ward service.

The home of the Department of Neurology's outpatient clinic is at the garden level of the Yale Physician's Building at 800 Howard Avenue. Residents see their continuity clinic patients 2-3 times each clinic week at this site, which includes one day of new patients and allows for patients needing close neurologic follow-up to be scheduled relatively quickly after hospital care. This site also houses most of the subspecialty attending clinics where residents are able to rotate during the mornings of their clinic week.

The Cornell Scott Hill Health Center was founded in 1968 as a partnership led by Mr. Cornell Scott in collaboration with the Yale School of Medicine as Connecticut’s first Federally Qualified Community Health Center. It now serves over 36,000 patients each year in multiple locations throughout the Greater New Haven area and is an essential healthcare resource for the underserved members of the New Haven Community.

There is a dedicated neurology clinic once per week for patients of this health center where residents see both new and established patients under the supervision of a dedicated core of Yale Neurology attendings. It is an excellent opportunity for neurology residents to get exposure to community-based neurologic care.