Hackensack Meridian Health Program

Program Identity & Fit

This is a young, ACGME-approved (2020) Child Neurology residency built on Hackensack Meridian Health's multi-hospital New Jersey network, structuring training across three distinct phases: general pediatrics, a PGY3 adult neurology year at JFK Neuroscience Institute, and PGY4-5 child neurology rotations split between K. Hovnanian Children's Hospital (JSUMC) and Joseph M. Sanzari Children's Hospital (HUMC). The explicit rationale for the adult neurology year—mastering the complete neurologic exam and localization skills on more cooperative adult patients before applying them across pediatric age groups—reflects a deliberate pedagogical philosophy rather than a generic requirement. The program offers exposure to pediatric neurology subspecialties (epilepsy, neuromuscular, movement disorders, neuroimmunology, neurocritical care) and explicitly frames trainee outcomes as a fork between direct clinical practice, subspecialty fellowship, or academic medicine with research and teaching, without signaling a dominant institutional pull toward any one path. As a new program still establishing its identity, it appears to value trainees comfortable with a multi-site, two-hospital training structure and the extended, examination-focused adult-year detour uncommon among newer child neurology tracks.