University of California San Francisco Program

Program Identity & Fit

UCSF Child Neurology is an academic, university-based program combining categorical Pediatrics training (UCSF or linked Benioff Oakland) with a rigorous adult neurology year at Moffitt/Long and Zuckerberg San Francisco General before two dedicated child neurology years at Benioff Children's Hospital, a tertiary/quaternary referral center with dedicated Neurological Intensive Care Nursery and Epilepsy Monitoring Unit. Training spans a full socioeconomic spectrum, from complex quaternary referrals at Moffitt/Long to the safety-net, publicly-insured, trauma and HIV-affected population at ZSFG. The program is embedded in the Weill Institute for Neurosciences research complex and offers a Flexible Residency allowing up to six months of protected time for laboratory, clinical, global health, public health, or medical education projects, reflecting an identity oriented toward producing academic child neurologists, though graduate outcomes show a mix of subspecialty fellowship (epilepsy, neuromuscular, neuro-oncology, neurocritical care) and direct clinical practice. The program explicitly frames itself among the top-ranked child neurology programs and values residents who can develop independent academic or subspecialty interests within a highly structured, high-acuity, multi-site training arc.