Yale Pediatrics welcomes Geoffrey Miller, MD, Professor of Pediatrics and Neurology, as the Clinical Director of the Child Neurology Service and Director of the Spina Bifida Program. Miller envisions a program that will accept the full range and degree of disabilities requiring physical care, counseling and investigating. Patients will range in age from newborn to 18 and will be afflicted with conditions that destroy the developing nervous system, such as cerebral palsy and spina bifida, or handicapping neuromuscular disorders like muscular dystrophy.
He explained: “The most effective clinical management model is a multidisciplinary program that extends to the healthcare setting, the home and the school, giving children and their families access to all the services and support they need, including physical therapists, surgeons, radiologists, genetics, social workers, specially trained teachers, medical equipment and more. It’s hard to do, but often it is that way when what you are doing is worthwhile and satisfying.”
Miller comes to Yale after 14 years at Texas Children's Hospital and Baylor College of Medicine, the largest children’s hospital in the United States. At Baylor, Miller was a senior member of the child neurology service, and at one time chief of developmental medicine.
Following his medical education at Trinity College Dublin, he found a special interest in neurology and felt his lifelong vocation was to support and help children in need. In England, he completed three residencies: one in pediatrics, and two in neurology/neurodevelopmental disabilities, followed by two fellowships—one in adult and one in child neurology. His postdoctoral studies in Australia were in child neurology and neurodevelopmental disabilities, including pediatric neuromuscular disorders, and he gained a doctorate in cerebral palsy epidemiology. He has also earned a Masters in Philosophy, studying Bioethics and Medical Law.
Board certified in both neurology and neurodevelopmental disabilities, Miller’s many years of clinical experience, in addition to academic research that has produced two co-authored textbooks and over 100 publications, position him as Connecticut’s leading authority in neurodevelopmental disabilities and pediatric neuromuscular disorder.
His research has focused on the causes and consequences of neurological handicaps, but at present is centered on bioethical issues surrounding the disabled child. He brings this interest to the Yale Interdisciplinary Bioethics Project. His third book, Extreme Prematurity; Bioethics and the Law is due to be published in the near future.